November 16, 2001	Friday	Shaba'an 29, 1422

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WASHINGTON, Nov 15: More details were reported on Thursday of the raid carried out earlier in the week on the homes of three Pennsylvania residents of Pakistani descent.

A 30-member Swat team had swooped down on the homes of Irshad Shaikh, whose brother Masood Shaikh lives with him, and Asif Kazi in the city of Chester on Monday. Irshad Shaikh is health commissioner of Chester, and both Masood Shaikh and Kazi also work for the city government,

Details are skimpy, but it appears that a resident of the neighbourhood had seen Kazi dumping some liquid on the ground behind his house and carrying a cannister, and informed the FBI.

In the atmosphere of suspicion and alarm created by the recent rash of anthrax attacks, it was only a matter of time before an armed group of law-enforcement officials, many in protective garb, descended on the houses concerned with search warrants.

The liquid, Kazi was said to have told reporters, was soapy water from a clogged sink, and the container was a food dish.

Mr Kazi’s wife told AP she was cooking breakfast when armed agents broke down the door and held her at gunpoint. They seized her prescription for Cipro, a drug she uses for a chronic health problem but which is also used to treat people exposed to anthrax infection.