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.
FORUM: The Solomon Islands’ move to bar Taiwan, the US and others from the Pacific Islands Forum has sparked criticism that Beijing’s influence was behind the decision Tuvaluan Prime Minister Feletei Teo said his country might pull out of the region’s top political meeting next month, after host nation Solomon Islands moved to block all external partners — including China, the US and Taiwan — from attending. The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders’ meeting is to be held in Honiara in September. On Thursday last week, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele told parliament that no dialogue partners would be invited to the annual gathering. Countries outside the Pacific, known as “dialogue partners,” have attended the forum since 1989, to work with Pacific leaders and contribute to discussions around
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
Outside Havana, a combine belonging to a private Vietnamese company is harvesting rice, directly farming Cuban land — in a first — to help address acute food shortages in the country. The Cuban government has granted Agri VAM, a subsidiary of Vietnam’s Fujinuco Group, 1,000 hectares of arable land in Los Palacios, 118km west of the capital. Vietnam has advised Cuba on rice cultivation in the past, but this is the first time a private firm has done the farming itself. The government approved the move after a 52 percent plunge in overall agricultural production between 2018 and 2023, according to data
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
RSS