28 September 2004	Tuesday	12 Shaban 1425

TOBA TEK SINGH, Sept 27: The Family of Amjad Farooqi, who was described by security agencies as Al Qaeda kingpin, has demanded custody of his body for burial in his native village.

His father Chaudhry Afzal told Dawn on Monday evening that even after 36 hours of the incident, no government official contacted him or his family for the identification of the body.

Replying to a question, Chaudhry Afzal said he did not know that his son had ever been involved in terrorist activities though he knew that he was a member of a jehadi outfit.

He said he did not know whether his son was involved in the attack on Gen Musharraf. Javed, the elder brother of Amjad, said he tried to contact Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao by telephone but his assistant told him that the minister was in a meeting and would call him back. But he never did.

He denied that the brother-in-law of Amjad had been brought to Nawabshah for identification of the body. He claimed that the widow of Javed and his three-year-old daughter had reached the village.

Amer, the younger brother, claimed that he or his family had no contact with him. They met him when he visited the village some 25 days before the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

He said the family knew about his involvement in the murder of Pearl when police raided their house on Feb 15, 2002. Village lumberdar Manzoor Amad said Amjad was a religious person.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that Javed runs an English medium school in the village which was situated on the frontier of district on River Ravi near Khanewal district while the family owns a few acres of farmland.