LAHORE, July 26: Initial investigation revealed on Monday that foreigners arrested from Gujrat were remnants of the Afghan war, who had allegedly been working as Al Qaeda operatives.
The foreigners and other persons held from a Gujrat house after a 16-hour standoff were learnt to have been under investigation at an army safe house in Lahore cantonment. Some of them, however, were shuttled between different interrogation facilities in the city by the law enforcers for joint investigation.
Sources said that the suspected Al Qaeda operatives were being quizzed by personnel from intelligence agencies. However, both the Punjab government and senior police hierarchy in the province would continue with their initial stand that the affiliations and nationalities of the suspected terrorists would only be confirmed after completion of the investigation.
"We are no more a part of the investigation," a senior Punjab police officer said, and added details of the plans and affiliations of the alleged terrorists would be disclosed at federal level.
On the other hand, none of the arrested people were produced before any court of law, nor was there any official word about their legal status in the custody of law enforcers.
Although an interior ministry official said that none of the arrested persons was a big gun, the sources close to the investigation believed that the remnants had been providing logistic support to the Al-Qaeda men for executing plans.
They would also provide shelter, transportation and other facilities for the terror-network. Besides, one of the held foreigners is considered to be an expert in telecommunication system, the sources said, and added he (the foreigner) had been acting as a very strong tool for communicating and translating some special messages of the terror-network to its members.
The sources said that the communication gadgets seized from the Gujrat house could not be retrieved fully because they had been damaged by the blaze and smoke after the police put the house on fire and teargassed it.
However, they added experts engaged by the law enforcers were busy examining the gadgets and other data retrieved from two laptop computers also seized from the house. A packet full of some chemical has been sent for examination, they said.
The arrested persons had unofficially been identified as Abdullah of Okara, his wife Fatima, a Saudian, and their three minor children Jamil (4), Asia (2) and infant Abdullah; Feroze, a South African, Kamran Javed of Balochistan, his wife Habiba and their 10-day-old son, Zubair Ismael, a South African and his Pakistani wife Asia, and a Saudian boy Talha (13).
Abdullah, Feroze, Kamran, Zubair and Talha were trained in Afghanistan and Iran and they had allegedly been involved in terrorist activities in the country for three years. Further investigation is under way.
