Posted on 03/10/2003 9:10:05 AM PST by honway
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A court ordered a Pakistani man arrested March 1 with suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to remain in police custody for at least three days while police continue to interrogate him, court officials said Saturday.
The anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi, near Pakistan's capital, ruled police could continue to hold the suspect, Ahmed Abdul Qadus, until at least March 11. At that time, the court will rule again and is likely to approve his continued detention.
Qadus, a member of Pakistan's hardline Jamaat-e-Islami religious party, was captured at his home in a raid by Pakistani intelligence and CIA agents. Also captured were Mohammed, believed to be al-Qaida's No. 3 man, and a third terror suspect.
Mohammed has been handed over to U.S. custody and flown out of the country.
Qadus' family members say that the two al-Qaida men were never in their home.
Police investigator Mohammed Afzal made no mention of Mohammed when making his argument against Qadus, but said the suspect had a history of sheltering extremists and was found with weapons.
"During his arrest, police also recovered three hand grenades and a pistol from the house of Ahmed Abdul Qadus," Afzal said. Afzal said Qadus had previously sheltered a man who killed Iranian military cadets in Pakistan in 2001.
"We request his continued custody to probe his links with religious extremists and to recover explosive material from him," Afzal told the court.
Searches for bin Laden and other al-Qaida operatives have intensified since Mohammed's capture. Pakistani intelligence and security officials say joint U.S. and Pakistani forces have been scouring Baluchistan province, chasing down leads from Mohammed.
There were also reports of search missions being conducted in northwestern Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan to flush out al-Qaida.
A top Pakistani provincial police official said Friday that a U.S.-led raid in southwestern Afghanistan killed seven al-Qaida men and wounded eight others - including two sons of bin Laden. U.S. officials disputed the report.
Sanaullah Zehri, home minister of Baluchistan province and the region's top security official, said the allied raid occurred near Rabat, an area where the borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan converge.
In Washington, U.S. counterterrorism officials strongly disputed the reports. They said they had no information to suggest the sons had been detained.
Ahmed Abdul Qadus is brought to the anti-terrorist court under tight security in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Saturday, March 8, 2003. Qadus, a member of Pakistan's hardline Jamaat-e-Islami religious party, was arrested on March 1 along with suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. The court ordered Qadus to remain in police custody for at least three days while police continue to interrogate him, court officials said. (AP Photo/Tariq Aziz)
Qudsia Khanum, sister of Ahmed Abdul Qadus, displays his driver's license at his residence in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Qadus' family denies his involvement in terrorism.
This story keeps getting stranger by the minute. A man is taken into custody because the mastermind of 9-11 is captured in his home, but no mention of Khalid Mohammed in court.
It has been suggested in Pakistan that KSM was actually picked up last September in the raid which snagged bin-Alshibh, as was originally reported at the time (I remember it well), and the story of KSM's recent arrest is disinformation. I find that idea quite plausible.
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