SUKKUR, July 19: Law-enforcement and intelligence agency personnel from Karachi on Tuesday arrested two brothers from a medical store situated near the Sukkur Civil Hospital. According to sources, Waseem Khan, 25, and Shahzad, 28, were arrested by the agencies on information that they were allegedly linked to one Siddiq who was killed in London blasts.

DPO Aftab Halepoto confirmed the arrests.

Sources claimed that the arrested people also had connections with Asim Ghafoor, who allegedly was the mastermind of an attack on President Gen Pervez Musharraf and was killed in an encounter with police in Karachi.

The arrested brothers’ maternal uncle, Azizur Rehman, said they were not affiliated with any banned religious group. He said they had nothing to do with Siddiq or Asim Ghafoor.

He said according to his knowledge, a police mobile and a car reached the medical store at about 1:30pm and took away the brothers to some undisclosed place. He said their sister and mother fell unconscious after receiving the news of the arrests. He said: “We don’t know why the boys have been picked up.”

He demanded that authorities concerned should tell the family about the whereabouts of the brothers and the reason why they had been arrested.