Islamabad, June 19: A key al-Qaeda "facilitator" captured in northwest Pakistan has extensive information about the shadowy terror network's operations, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said today. "Being a facilitator he is privy to certain activities which normal operatives do not have. He must have a lot of information," Hayat told.
The captive, identified as Abu Adel al-Jazeeri, is the prize catch among five men picked up in a pre-dawn swoop yesterday in Peshawar, 40 kilometres from the Afghan border.
Hayat said all five were "Arabs and Afghans."
Al-Jazeeri was being interrogated today by Pakistani investigators with international assistance. US Central Intelligence Agency experts have been helping Pakistani counterparts hunt down fugitives from Osama bin Laden's network.
"Al-Jazeeri is being questioned by Pakistani investigators, but we have the cooperation of international and foreign agencies," Hayat said.
"We have to cooperate with US, European and Middle Eastern agencies as al-Qaeda is not only linked to Pakistan."
Documents and computer discs were seized during the raid.
The raid was based on information gleaned from a Saudi national who was arrested last weekend after three Afghan refugees withdrew a large sum of cash from a foreign bank in Peshawar, a security official said on condition of anonymity.
Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence Agency has captured more than 450 al-Qaeda suspects since the late 2001 toppling of the Taliban regime, which harboured the al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan.
Bureau Report