Doctor indicted

Police yesterday formally charged a Pakistani doctor and his brother, detained for harbouring Al Qaida figures, with attempted murder and illegal weapons possession.

Doctors Ahmed Javed Khwaja and his Canadian national brother Ahmed Naveed were arrested on December 18 on suspicion of sheltering Al Qaida fugitives.

The Pakistani doctor's two sons, who have American citizenship, and his Canadian national nephew were arrested at the same time.

They have been held in custody for the past six weeks under state security laws in addition to the attempted murder and weapons charges.

The charges were filed with an anti-terrorism court and the next hearing was set for February 1.
Khwaja and his companions have meanwhile reportedly confessed that they provided medical treatment to close relatives of Osama bin Laden and Abu Zubaida.

A report appearing in the Lahore-based daily, The Daily Times‚ yesterday, quotes intelligence sources as saying, "Dr Khwaja and his accomplices provided medical treatment to a wife of Osama bin Laden and also to the wife of another key Al Qaida leader Abu Zubaida in Lahore in 2002".

The source stated that Dr Khwaja said he provided medical treatment to the wives of the Al Qaida leaders because of his "professional responsibility and duty" and that there was no other link with his patients' relatives.

"Abu Zubaida was arrested in March last year from Faisalabad only after a call was traced to Dr Khwaja's number," the source said. "It was later disclosed that the call was made by Zubaida to thank the doctor for providing treatment to his pregnant wife."

The source said that initially the intelligence agencies confused the voice of Abu Zubaida with the voice of bin Laden, but after the raid on the place of the origin of the call in Faisalabad, Abu Zubaida was arrested.

The arrest of Abu Hamza from Karachi has also been based on the information provided by Dr Khwaja during interrogation, it is learnt. Sources said that the raids are conducted "as and when" new information is available from every interrogation session.