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Islamic leaders under watch in Pak after al-Qaeda arrests
Islamabad, Mar 04: Leaders of Pakistan`s Jamaat Islami party have been put under watch following the weekend arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged al-Qaeda mastermind, from the house of a party member, a news report said today.
Islamabad, Mar 04: Leaders of Pakistan's Jamaat Islami party have been put under watch following the weekend arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged al-Qaeda mastermind, from the house of a party member, a news report said today.
Islamabad's Urdu-language daily 'Jang' quoted unidentified Federal officials as saying that intelligence agencies have been directed to collect information about ''active members'' of the party.
Jamaat Islami is the best organized among the six-party Islamic alliance represented in the Parliament.
A leader of the party, Senator Ghafoor Ahmed, however, shrugged off the report about surveillance.
''It is nothing new. We are being watched - and our telephones are being tapped - for quite some time now,'' he told journalists in Islamabad.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's interior minister Faisal Saleh Hayat denied press reports that the arrested high-ranking al-Qaeda leader has been handed to the United States.
Several newspapers quoted Hayat as saying extradition of Shaikh Mohammed, number three in the al-Qaeda network, would be considered after Pakistani agencies finished interrogating him and an Arab accomplice arrested along with him.
''If the government of their (home) country asks Pakistan to hand them over to the US, then Pakistan will consider to do so,'' he told the newspaper 'Dawn'.
Reports said al-Qaeda's Shaikh Mohammed, arrested over the weekend in the city of Rawalpindi, is the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks.
Ahmed Abdul Qudoos, a Pakistani citizen in whose house Kuwaiti-born Shaikh Mohammad and an Egyptian national were found hiding, is also in detention, and would be dealt with under Pakistani law, he said.
Qudoos's family denied he had any links with terrorists and said he was picked up in a midnight raid on the house.
Hayat said preliminary interrogations produced some clues about other al-Qaeda members hiding in Pakistan.
General Rashid Qureshi, head of the military's information office and a presidential spokesman, told the private geo television channel it could not be said how long the interrogation of the arrested suspects would take.
Bureau Report
''It is nothing new. We are being watched - and our telephones are being tapped - for quite some time now,'' he told journalists in Islamabad.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's interior minister Faisal Saleh Hayat denied press reports that the arrested high-ranking al-Qaeda leader has been handed to the United States.
Several newspapers quoted Hayat as saying extradition of Shaikh Mohammed, number three in the al-Qaeda network, would be considered after Pakistani agencies finished interrogating him and an Arab accomplice arrested along with him.
''If the government of their (home) country asks Pakistan to hand them over to the US, then Pakistan will consider to do so,'' he told the newspaper 'Dawn'.
Reports said al-Qaeda's Shaikh Mohammed, arrested over the weekend in the city of Rawalpindi, is the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks.
Ahmed Abdul Qudoos, a Pakistani citizen in whose house Kuwaiti-born Shaikh Mohammad and an Egyptian national were found hiding, is also in detention, and would be dealt with under Pakistani law, he said.
Qudoos's family denied he had any links with terrorists and said he was picked up in a midnight raid on the house.
Hayat said preliminary interrogations produced some clues about other al-Qaeda members hiding in Pakistan.
General Rashid Qureshi, head of the military's information office and a presidential spokesman, told the private geo television channel it could not be said how long the interrogation of the arrested suspects would take.
Bureau Report