Islamabad, Oct 22: Pakistani security agencies today started intense interrogation of two Arabs arrested for suspected links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. Security officials said the two suspects and a Pakistani companion were intercepted by police late Monday in Faisalabad, an industrial city 240 kilometers south of Islamabad.
They were later handed over to the military's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency for interrogation. "The two Arabs have told us they are Yemenis but they have no documents. We suspect they are members of al-Qaeda," an Islamabad-based security official said.
Preliminary interrogation showed the men fled the remote tribal region of south Waziristan on the border with Afghanistan after an October 2 operation by the army there in which eight al-Qaeda suspects were killed and 18 arrested. In March last year security agencies had captured Abu Zubaydah, a top lieutenant of Osama, from a hideout in Faisalabad which lies in the heart of central Punjab province.
The official said the Pakistani companion of the Arab suspects belonged to a militant group and he was identified as Javed Ahmed. He did not disclose the name of the group. Bureau Report