PESHAWAR, June 18: Security agencies arrested an Algerian man from Peshawar believed to be on the list of Al-Qaeda suspects wanted by the United States.

Adil Al Jazeeri was picked up from outside a restaurant in the posh Hayatabad Township along with five others who were later on freed.

The 27-year-old Al Jazeeri is fluent in Pushto and has been living in Pakistan-Afghanistan for almost 17 years. He has been described as an Al-Qaeda facilitator who had fled to Pakistan after the collapse of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

After returning to Peshawar, Al Jazeeri took up residence in Regi in rural Peshawar. His brother-in-law was arrested in the same area about a year ago. He had married the daughter of a local cleric and had two children.

A local of Regi however, said that Al Jazeeri had no connection with Al-Qaeda as he belonged to the Takfiri group.

The Takfiri group is better known by Jamaatul Muslimeen and has its headquarters in Egypt. The group first came to light when it assassinated the Vice Chancellor of Al Azhar University, Al Zahabi for issuing a fatwa against it.

The Takfiris are known to be fiercely anti-West and anti- American. It believes all those Muslims who are under the influence of the West are non-believers who are required to make a fresh baia’t (vow) to Islam.

The group emerged in Pakistan in 1994.

Most of its members had been involved in criminal activities. Al Jazeeri too is known to have been involved in robbery, including that at the house of a Saudi national in Peshawar.