Islamabad seeks clues on jailed American 'jihadis'

Islamabad: Police on Monday raided a hotel where some of the Americans held on possible links to terrorism stayed, in a case that has highlighted how easily anyone can use the internet to pursue dreams of waging holy war.

The detention of the five young Americans from Virginia in a town that is home to a major Pakistani air base suggests there is little the US ally can do to prevent people from surfing the web and hooking up with militants bent on toppling the nuclear-armed state.

Police in the southern port city and commercial capital of Karachi raided a hotel where three of the five men stayed upon arrival in Pakistan two weeks ago. But it appears there were few clues.

Senior Karachi police official Ghulam Nabi Memon said a mobile telephone and five bags had been recovered, although nothing significant was found in the bags.

YouTube link

Police said investigators were trying to track down a man named "Saifullah" who contacted one of the Americans, Ahmad Minni, through YouTube, a popular site where anyone aspiring to become a jihadi can find a wide range of Al Qaida and Taliban videos.

"We still have no leads about who this Saifullah was but we are trying to find him," one of the investigators said. The five men were shifted to the eastern city of Lahore at the weekend.

There has been speculation Washington may ask Pakistan to send the men back to the United States.

But the men, who authorities say were trying to contact militant groups through the internet, will not be deported, a Pakistani court ruled yesterday, said Tarek Asad, a lawyer in the case.

"They should not be handed over to the FBI or America or any other country until this petition is decided," he said. The next hearing is expected on Thursday.

US FBI agents and their Pakistani colleagues have been interrogating the American Muslims who wanted to go to Afghanistan to fight US-led forces, Pakistani officials said.

That could further inflame already widespread anti-American anger in Pakistan, whose army has traditionally been focused on arch-rival and fellow nuclear power India.

The five men, students in their 20s, were detained last week in Sargodha in Punjab province, 190km southeast of the capital Islamabad. They tried to contact militants and stayed in touch with each other through the internet, Pakistani security officials said.

A police report on the case showed photographs of members of the group of Americans identified as Waqar Hussain Khan, Ahmad Minni, Ramy Zamzam, Aman Yemer and Umar Farooq.

Amnesty

Pakistani politics are focused on a controversial amnesty decree connected to corruption charges against thousands of bureaucrats and officials, including Zardari and the defence and interior ministers.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule the 2007 amnesty, introduced by former president Pervez Musharraf, unconstitutional.

That would lead to the revival of cases.

Presidential immunity protects Zardari but the amnesty issue has weakened him further.

In a Supreme Court hearing on Monday, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry heard concerns from a government lawyer who warned any prosecutions could destabilise the country.