PESHAWAR, Sept 25: An Al Qaeda suspect arrested in Peshawar last week may well be a member of the so-called Hamburg cell that planned and executed the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in the US last year, a senior intelligence official said.
The official dealing with the case said Lutfi, who used four different aliases and picked up from a suburban locality in Peshawar, had left Hamburg (Germany) shortly before the terrorist attacks in Washington and New York. “He may have a lot of information,” the official said.
A team of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) accompanied by Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) raided a house in Jehangirabad last week and arrested Lutfi along with a Pakistani and Afghan national.
Officials at the time had identified the 30-year-old Tunisian as Saleem but investigators now say the suspect used different aliases and speaks Arabic only. “We know that he received training at an Al Qaeda facility in Afghanistan and his travel documents show that he lived in Germany, France and Spain,” the official familiar with the interrogation of the suspect said. “He is not a well-known figure. But we believe that he is important,” he said.
Lutfi, according to investigators, arrived in Pakistan shortly before the attacks on World Trade Centre and the Pentagon and crossed over to Afghanistan. He, however, later sneaked back into Pakistan through the tribal region in October last. “He had been hiding in Peshawar since then.”
He said Lutfi was being questioned by Pakistani investigators and had not yet been turned over to the Americans.
The other members of the so-called Hamburg cell were: Ramzi bin Al Shibh, arrested in Karachi recently, and Mohammad Atta, who was killed in one of the hijacked planes that destroyed the US landmarks.
AL QAEDA CELLS: The official acknowledged reports that the Al Qaeda’s network remained intact and that its militants were hiding in the Pakistani tribal areas, including the North and South Waziristan tribal regions, Bajaur and the districts of Peshawar and Swat. “The trouble is that they don’t stay at one place for more than a week and keep on changing their hideouts.”
The official said Pakistanis and Afghans sympathetic to Al Qaeda continued to provide logistical support to the militants.
ZAWAHARI ALIVE: The official disclosed that Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant Dr Aiman Alzawahari had been reported seen in a tribal region close to Peshawar. He said the sighting of the senior Egyptian Al Qaeda leader had been reported by the American intelligence.
