ISLAMABAD, June 9: Pakistan on Thursday denied claims that one of two terror suspects arrested in California had received training at an Al Qaeda camp in the country.
“There are no training camps in Pakistan,” senior foreign ministry official Naeem Khan told AFP here when asked to comment on the reports in US and Pakistani newspapers.
“We are the frontline state in the fight against terrorism. How can we allow such camps in our country?” Khan said, adding that Islamabad had asked its embassy in Washington to get details of the charges from US authorities.
The Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had arrested a Pakistani American and his son in Lodi, California, on the suspicion of having links to Al Qaeda.
The son, Hamid Hayat, 23, said that he had been trained at an Al Qaeda camp in Pakistan for six months in 2003 and 2004 to learn ‘how to kill Americans,’ US authorities cited by the daily said.
The daily said that Hamid’s father, Umer, 47, who drives an ice cream truck, had admitted having sent nearly $100 a month to his son while he attended the terrorist training camp.
Hamid was arrested upon returning to the United States from Pakistan on May 27, it said.
According to an affidavit cited in the report, Hamid admitted to having returned to carry out attacks against US installations, including ‘hospitals and large food stores.’
The men’s family denied that the pair had any links to Al Qaeda. A cousin told the Times that Hamid had made his most recent visit to Pakistan with his mother to arrange marriages and to visit relatives.
Hamid told FBI agents that he had been trained at a camp near Rawalpindi, according to a report in Dawn.
