ISLAMABAD, March 16: Pakistan is holding a Syrian-born man with suspected terrorism links, a Pakistani official said on Thursday. The official gave no further details, including when or where the man was detained.
Pakistani authorities said in November that they were trying to determine whether a man detained during a police raid in Quetta was Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, 47, an Al Qaeda-linked Syrian native who holds Spanish citizenship.
Nasar has had a $5 million (euro4.2 million) US bounty on his head and has been described by the US Justice Department as a former trainer at Osama bin Laden’s camps in Afghanistan who helped teach extremists to use poisons and chemicals.
US authorities have said he is likely to be in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
Jose-Maria Robels, Spain’s ambassador to Pakistan, said on Thursday he had no information about any such arrest.
Spain sought official confirmation from Pakistan after Nasar’s arrest was reported by media in November, but has yet to receive a reply, he said.
Media reports have linked Nasar, also known as Abu Musab al-Suri, to the 2004 commuter train bombings in Madrid, Spain, that killed 191 people, and to the July 7 attacks in London that left 56 dead, including the four bombers.
In September 2003, Nasar was among 35 people named in an indictment handed down by a Spanish magistrate for terrorist activities connected to Al Qaeda.—AP
