Al Qaeda man held in Pakistan (in FATA - the Federal Administered Tribal Areas)

Dawn (Pakistan) ^ | July 02 2002 | AFP

[AM2000]

PESHAWAR, July 1: Pakistan Army personnel have arrested an Arab Al Qaeda terrorist in the remote tribal territory bordering Afghanistan, local officials and tribesmen said on Monday.

The Arab detainee, believed to be a member of Osama bin Laden's terror network, was arrested on Sunday from a bus at Tanai village in south Waziristan, they said. "The Arab travelling in the bus was trying to enter Wana," a local administration official told reporters in the area. He was being held for questioning in Wana, he said.

Residents said the bus was travelling from Lahore, but it was unclear from where he had boarded it.

The Arab was arrested at a checkpoint set up by troops involved in a massive air and ground manhunt for some 40 Al Qaeda fighters who had fled a shootout on Tuesday night in which 10 soldiers of the Pakistan Army were killed.

The midnight gunbattle erupted as troops raided a tribal elder's mud-brick fortress home where the extremists, described by locals as Chechens, were holed up.

Residents said two Chechens arrested after the gunbattle were shifted to an undisclosed location on Monday. "Both were blind-folded, handcuffed and fettered," a tribal elder said.

Residents said they believed the arrested men had been taken to a heavily-guarded military base outside Wana.

Tuesday night's deaths were the first among Pakistan forces since they joined US and other allied military units in the hunt for Al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives from the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan.

Officials said six people belonging to Tableeghi Jamaat movement were also detained over the weekend.

The Tableeghis, whisked away from a religious school, include three local tribesmen and three others from Sargodha district, officials said. The preachers said they were on a one-year mission to impart Islamic teachings to the local people.

Local officials said they had contacted the Tableeghi Jamaat's headquarters in Raiwind to verify their statement.

Tribal sources said the troops also raided two more villages, Karikot and Wacha Khwara, three kilometres north of Wana, and searched several houses but found no Al Qaeda fighters.

Some 1,000 ground troops, backed by helicopters and armoured personnel carriers, have been scouring the remote mountain passes and conducting house-to-house searches for escaped Al Qaeda men.

At least 15 tribesmen were rounded up on Thursday on suspicion of giving refuge to the Al Qaeda group.-AFP

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