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Four Turkish Al Qaida suspects held with fake IDs
Security agencies have arrested four Turks with suspected links to the Al Qaida, intelligence officials said on Friday.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:34 April 5, 2008
Quetta: Security agencies have arrested four Turks with suspected links to the Al Qaida, intelligence officials said on Friday.
Explosives, some 1,400 rounds of ammunition, and a laptop containing "jihadi" material were found on the suspects, who were detained by paramilitary troops late on Thursday as they were travelling on a bus from the western province of Balochistan to neighbouring Sindh, the officials said.
Interrogations revealed they were Turkish, and three were carrying Turkish passports, although they all had fake identity cards.
Claiming to be refugees
"They are between the age of 30 and 35 and were carrying identity cards showing them as Afghan refugees," said an intelligence official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"We have arrested them on suspicion they may have links to Al Qaida," said the official.
A Frontier Corps official said the men were arrested in Dera Murad Jamali town after a tip-off, and had been handed over to an intelligence agency.
The United States is concerned that the Al Qaida terrorist network has regrouped in the ethnic Pashtun tribal areas straddling the Pakistan-Afghan border and is working with the new government in Islamabad to find the best approach to tackle the problem.
Arab and Central Asian militants have taken refuge in the region and young radicals from Europe have also sought militant training in the region, according to information available with Western intelligence agencies.
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