PESHAWAR, Aug 17: A large number of Arab nationals, who took part in the Afghan war during the Soviet occupation, are still at large in Peshawar and other parts of the NWFP, said father-in-law of the deceased Al Qaeda suspect Abu Hais, who was killed by the police on Thursday evening.

Referring to his participation in jihad against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan, Abdul Hai told Dawn on Sunday at his residence in the Hayatabad township that at that time, he had been a “senior government official,” adding: “I met twice with Osama bin Laden during the war in Afghanistan.”

Mr Hai, ideologically affiliated with the Jamaat-i-Islami and fluent in Arabic, was promoted to the post of the deputy secretary, defence, in 1991 besides serving as the finance advisor to the Pakistan Air Force in 1992 before joining the Rabita Alam-i-Islami as its deputy project director on deputation from where he retired in 2001.

Influenced by Osama bin Laden’s jihadi doctrine, Mr Hai said, “I love Arabs. They are (fine) Mujahideen, who contributed immensely in expelling Russian (Soviet) forces from Afghanistan.”

“I have helped a lot of Arabs in Pakistan since Russia (Soviet forces) invaded Afghanistan. Abu Hais alias Abdur Rehman was among them. I had met him only a month before marrying off my niece with him,” he said.

Describing Abu Hais as a Mujahid in the Afghan war during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, Mr Hai denied that he (Abu Hais) had any link with the Al Qaeda network. “He was a Hafiz and taught Quran and Hadith at the Ahyaut Taras seminary, established by Arab nationals for Afghan orphans in Peshawar,” he said, adding that he (Abu Hais) was also involved in the trading honey.

Abu Hais, Mr Hai said, had been leading a “peaceful life” in Peshawar, adding that he was a “free man, who had nothing to do with terrorism.”

“If the police wanted to arrest him, they could have easily asked him or even me (to arrange) for his interrogation,” Mr Hai said.

Denying having personally known the absconding Al Qaeda operative, Sheikh Abu Suleman alias Ayub, Mr Hai said: “I know of (only) one Ayub, friend of my son-in-law. He seldom visited the home of the deceased,” but he informed that Ayub had also married into a Pushtun family and had three kids.

He said most of the Arab nationals had no link with the Al Qaeda organization.

He informed that he had married off his five daughters to Arab Mujahideen, three of whom were living happily with their husbands in Madina (Saudi Arabia) while another was living in Iraq, adding that his youngest daughter was married to a Sudanese, Saleem Mahmood Adam, and was living in Peshawar.

“Saleem Mahmood Adam was arrested from his residence in Hayatabad Township, phase II, on May 26, 2002 by officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Later, he was shifted to camp X- Ray at the Guantanamo Bay (in Cuba),” he said.

Mr Hai said that he had also been interrogated by FBI agents in Pakistan soon after the Sept 11 attacks. He had also been picked up by officials of the Inter-Services Intelligence in 1999 before the arrival of the then US president Bill Clinton in Pakistan.