March 20, 2002	Wednesday	Muharram 5, 1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

KOHAT, March 19: The troops patrolling the western borders with Afghanistan in Kurram Agency have arrested four Al Qaeda members and three Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday night, Dawn learnt from authentic sources.

Among those arrested, two belong to Sudan, one to Uganda, one to Mauritania and three to Pakistan.

A highly-placed military source told Dawn on Tuesday night on telephone from Kurram Agency that all those arrested had been shifted to Kohat and handed over to local intelligence personnel for further investigations.

On Tuesday last, an Afghan General Abdul Joenada had claimed that the allied troops had overrun the Al Qaeda fighters in the Shahi Kot area who escaped towards the Pakistani border from Urgan which was hardly 50 kilometres from the battlefield. A message was also sent to the military authorities in Pakistan that more than 400 Al Qaeda men had crossed into Pakistan who must be arrested.

Meanwhile, after the arrest of these men the intelligence and regular military troops had tightened security at the border with Afghanistan in Kurram Agency and a massive hunt had been launched to look for more Al Qaeda or Taliban men.

All the seven men held on Tuesday had managed to escape during the operation Anaconda in the Shahi Kot area where the US authorities claimed to have killed more than 800 Al Qaeda men during the last 13 days in the snow-covered mountains which have inaccessible routes.

The Taliban claimed to have arrested 19 US marines, including two women, during the 13-day long guerilla war in the Shah Kot area after which the US relinquished the compound to the Canadian and Afghan force.