Posted on 03/01/2003 4:03:29 PM PST by HAL9000
RAWALPINDI -- Three suspected terrorists including two foreigners were arrested from Rawalpindi in the wee hours of Saturday in two operations jointly launched by American FBI and local sensitive agencies, and it was suspected that one of the arrested foreigners was Khalid Sheikh Muhammad an operational chief of al-Qaeda, confirmed the sources in the Federal government.In the first operation launched at a house in Westridge-2, Nisar Road at 2.30am these agencies rounded up one Ahmad Qadoos, followed by a thorough search of the house and taking away of a tape-recorder, few cassettes, a computer set and few other items along with the suspected terrorist to some unknown destination.
However, the local police was kept in dark about these operations jointly launched by the FBI and Pakistani sensitive agencies.
Sources in the Federal government disclosed that actually the US FBI and Pakistani agencies in a joint raids rounded up three persons, two of them foreigners, from Westridge and Rawalpindi Sadr area on Saturday night.
One of the foreigners was suspected to be the operational chief of al-Qaeda, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, and the second the said to be the leading member of the organisation. Both would be flown to America in the next few hours, the sources further disclosed.
When contacted Federal Minister for Information and Media Development Sh. Rashid Ahmad confirmed the arrests and said that three persons were rounded up from various parts of the city.
Sh. Rashid refused to give details about the arrested persons, and said that at this juncture he could not disclose identity of the other two persons as it was not in the national interest.
He further said that Pakistani agencies had conducted the raids and the FBI agents were not part of these raids. The Information Minister said that after interrogation the details about these persons would be made public.
The sources confirmed that the FBI men were part of the raiding party and they had rounded up all the three persons from Westridge and Rawalpindi Sadr areas in two different operations.
The area police officials were unaware of the whole operation and when the SHO Westridge Police Station was contacted, he said that he came to know about the incident in the morning when the neighbours of Ahmad Qadoos informed them.
Meanwhile SSP Rawalpindi Police Syed Moravat Ali Shah and other senior officials were not available for comments on the situation and the staff deputed at their offices simply said that the officer was out on patrolling.
The wife of Ahmad Qadoos, who was taken away by the men in uniform, informed The Nation that at around 2.30 am they woke up with a thunderous knock at the main door of the house and by the time her husband Ahmad Qadoos approached the door the invaders broke into the house and overpowered her husband.
They did not let her husband to change the clothes and took him away she added. She further said that her two children, Bilal 8 and Esha 12, also woke up and the armed men pushed them into the bedroom and told them to keep silent.
Mrs Ahmad Qadoos, who is also area president of Jamaat-i-Islami Women Wing, revealed that all the men were in blue uniform and were equipped with automatic weapons. "Some of them were speaking English and were looking foreigners from their accent and fair complexion," She maintained.
Mrs Qadoos said that when she asked them who they were and what they wanted from them, one of the assailants threatened her to keep quite otherwise they would kill her kids.
She further said that later they broke entered the other rooms and searched each and every thing and while leaving they took away a tape-recorder, few cassettes and the computer set which was in use of her kids.
To a question, she said that the-raiders remained in the house for over an hour and were around 25 in number.
The daughter of Ahmad Qadoos, Esha said that she saw from the windows that few of the persons were guarding the whole area and all of them were in uniform.
The wife of Ahmad Qadoos said that her husband had nothing to do with terrorists and appealed to the Government of Pakistan to help in his release as her husband was innocent.
Wonder if this is who has been taping Bin Laden...
The fundamentalist religious party Jammat-i-Islami was instrumental in pushing for the use of Sharia, or Islamic law, as the basis for law and punishment in Pakistan (from which the amputation of the hands of thieves, stoning of adultresses, etc is derived). It is closely akin to the Wahabi fundamentalists in Saudi Arabia and the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.
Destination Egypt, IMHO.
I'd speculate he is en route to Diego Garcia.
Local article has interesting information, including an address.
Yeah, that oughta do it. If they want to elicit information from this SG Khalid, why not hand him over to the Israelis, on the sole condition that they don't kill him; and all of the funds generated from sales of the videotapes of his interrogations go to a trust fund for all of the widows and orphans from 9-11, for openers.
No, but if you're implying that he should be tortured, I'd suggest forcing him to eat an in-flight meal from EgyptAir. Yuck.
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