Pakistan yesterday questioned a top al-Qaeda suspect captured in Dubai over his alleged role in attempts to kill President Pervez Musharraf, as investigators ruled out al-Qaeda's hand in bombings in Karachi at the weekend.
"He is under questioning by Pakistani investigators," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said.
"He is required in many terrorist cases for interrogation."
Qari Saifullah Akhtar, whose arrest last week was the latest in a string of high-level al-Qaeda arrests since mid-July, was handed over to Pakistan late Saturday or early Sunday.
On Sunday night twin bombs tore through a religious school in Karachi, the crowded port city where scores of terror suspects have hidden.
But investigators ruled out al-Qaeda involvement in the blasts, which killed eight people, including at least six students.
"Al-Qaeda will not target religious students," Karachi police chief Tariq Jamil said.
"The main possibility on which we are working is sectarianism," he said, referring to rivalry between extremists in the majority Sunni and minority Shiite Muslim sects.
Akhtar is reported to have trained militants in Afghanistan before the Taliban regime's ouster in late 2001 and is wanted in connection with two assassination attempts against Musharraf in December, officials have said.
His capture is the latest blow to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, coming on the heels of Pakistan's penetration of an active al-Qaeda cell accused of plotting fresh attacks in Britain and the US.
The hunt is still on for other top operatives hiding out in the rugged borderlands and crowded cities of Pakistan, the world's second largest Muslim nation.
Security forces are targeting two top masterminds, identified by intelligence officials as Libyan national Abu Farj and an Egyptian known only as Hamza. Both are believed to be close associates of bin Laden.
"We are searching all the time. We are looking for these people who are on wanted lists, or who are involved in terrorist activities," Rashid said.
Akhtar headed Pakistan's top Taliban ally, the militant organization Harkat Jihad-e-Islami, and is reported to have trained militants in Afghanistan, a senior Pakistani intelligence official who asked not to be named said.
Rashid said Akhtar's arrest could "lead to the arrests of other members of his group."
The July arrests of alleged key al-Qaeda operatives Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani of Tanzania and computer whiz Naeem Noor Khan led to the capture of al-Qaeda suspects in the UK and to a security alert in the US.
Shamans in Peru on Monday gathered for an annual New Year’s ritual where they made predictions for the year to come, including illness for US President Donald Trump and the downfall of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. “The United States should prepare itself because Donald Trump will fall seriously ill,” Juan de Dios Garcia proclaimed as he gathered with other shamans on a beach in southern Lima, dressed in traditional Andean ponchos and headdresses, and sprinkling flowers on the sand. The shamans carried large posters of world leaders, over which they crossed swords and burned incense, some of which they stomped on. In this
Near the entrance to the Panama Canal, a monument to China’s contributions to the interoceanic waterway was torn down on Saturday night by order of local authorities. The move comes as US President Donald Trump has made threats in the past few months to retake control of the canal, claiming Beijing has too much influence in its operations. In a surprising move that has been criticized by leaders in Panama and China, the mayor’s office of the locality of Arraijan ordered the demolition of the monument built in 2004 to symbolize friendship between the countries. The mayor’s office said in
‘TRUMP’S LONG GAME’: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said that while fraud was a serious issue, the US president was politicizing it to defund programs for Minnesotans US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday said it was auditing immigration cases involving US citizens of Somalian origin to detect fraud that could lead to denaturalization, or revocation of citizenship, while also announcing a freeze of childcare funds to Minnesota and demanding an audit of some daycare centers. “Under US law, if an individual procures citizenship on a fraudulent basis, that is grounds for denaturalization,” US Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. Denaturalization cases are rare and can take years. About 11 cases were pursued per year between 1990 and 2017, the Immigrant Legal Resource
‘RADICALLY DIFFERENT’: The Kremlin said no accord would be reached if the new deal with Kyiv’s input did not remain within the limits fixed by the US and Russia in August Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is to meet US President Donald Trump in Florida this weekend, but Russia on Friday accused him and his EU backers of seeking to “torpedo” a US-brokered plan to stop the fighting. Today’s meeting to discuss new peace proposals comes amidst Trump’s intensified efforts to broker an agreement on Europe’s worst conflict since World War II. The latest plan is a 20-point proposal that would freeze the war on its current front line, but open the door for Ukraine to pull back troops from the east, where demilitarized buffer zones could be created, according to details revealed by
RSS