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| March 15, 2002 | Friday | Zilhaj 30, 1422 |
FBI questioning Pakistani in Kandahar, says ICRC
ISLAMABAD, March 14: Azmat Ullah Beg, father of Al Qaeda’s suspected activist, Moazzam Beg, has reportedly been informed by some representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross that the FBI is interrogating his son in Afghanistan.
According to family sources, the father of Moazzam, based in London, the ICRC representatives told him by telephone on Wednesday that his son was doing well in Kandahar and that he should not be worried about him.
Moazzam, who holds dual nationality of Britain and Pakistan, was picked up allegedly by a joint team of intelligence agencies from his home in Sector I/10 of Islamabad in early February.
A local lawyer and a friend of the accused filed a habeas corpus petition in the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court for his recovery and production before the court, seeking details of the charges levelled against him.
The bench, comprising Justice Ali Nawaz Chohan, directed the interior secretary to confirm from all the secret agencies and police authorities of all the cities of the country as to where Moazzam Beg had been detained and what charges had been levelled against him.
The deputy secretary of the interior ministry, Malik Razaq Ahmed, appeared before the court as a nominee of the secretary on Thursday and stated that no secret agency of the country had arrested Moazzam nor any of the authorities was keeping him in custody.
He also produced a letter, written by the SSP, Islamabad, Nasir Khan Durrani, that the Islamabad police had not arrested the accused nor kept him in their custody.
A representative of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) also said before the court that the agency had not arrested the suspect and did not know his whereabouts.
After this particular submission on behalf of the interior ministry, the court directed the counsel, Abdur Rehman Siddi-qui, to try to find out any clue of the missing person so that specific orders for relief could be issued to the authorities concerned on an opportune date.
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