WASHINGTON, Dec 10 US President Barack Obama said on Thursday he envisioned “a series of investigations” into the arrest of five American Muslims in Pakistan for allegedly attempting to contact two militant groups.

A transcript released by the White House quoted President Obama as telling a news conference in Norway that the arrests would be investigated.

“I think the details are still forthcoming,” Mr Obama said. “There will undoubtedly be a series of investigations surrounding these events, so I'd prefer not to comment on them at this point.”

Mr Obama also sought to assure the American Muslim community that the arrests did not reflect on them or their loyalty to America.

“I think what has been remarkable over the course of the last eight, nine years since 9/11 is the degree to which America has reaffirmed the extraordinary contributions of the Muslim American community and how they have been woven into the fabric of our nation in a seamless fashion,” he said.

The five had been reported missing from Virginia in mid November. Their families had contacted the FBI to help find the missing men.

Meanwhile, Sabira Farouk, the mother of one of the suspects, told CNN that along with her son Umar, her husband had also been arrested. This brings to six the number of people in police custody in Pakistan.

The arrests came after a raid on Wednesday on a home in Sargodha.

Pakistani police officials told reporters they found laptops and maps showings areas where terrorists have been active.

Sabira Farouk, however, told CNN that her son was in Pakistan to get married, not to plot terror attacks as Pakistani police have alleged. She said her husband had gone with Umar to arrange the marriage.

The suspects include two Pakistani-Americans, two Yemeni-Americans and an Egyptian-American.

Officials in Washington told reporters that it's too premature to link the men with any terrorist organisation, but police in Pakistan said preliminary investigations suggest they had sought to link up with the Jaish-i-Muhammad and Jamaatud Dawa militant organisations. Neither group showed interest, however.

So far no charges have been filed in the US and the FBI said that it was trying to determine whether a link existed between the five missing men and the arrests in Pakistan.

The US State Department said it did not have confirmation of the arrested individuals' identities or whether they were Americans. The US embassy in Islamabad was seeking further information.

“If the individuals are Americans, the United States will be seeking consular access,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.

Under the Geneva Convention, Pakistan is required to notify the United States about any Americans arrested, he added.

The US law-enforcement official said none of the five missing men had shown up on law-enforcement's radar before they were reported missing. “These guys never surfaced with us before.”

Imam Johari Abdul-Malik of the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organisations in the Washington area said that the five were active in their mosques.

“From all of our interviews, there was no sign they were outwardly radicalised,” the imam said.

In an odd twist the break in the case of these young men in Sargodha came from their families. They were particularly concerned after watching the men's farewell videos depicting scenes of war, death and declaring that they must defend the Muslims.

After the men disappeared in late November their family members, who are part of the local Muslim community in northern Virginia and around Washington DC, contacted the Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR put them in touch with the FBI and helped them get a lawyer.

Katherine Schweit, spokeswoman for the FBI, stated “We are working with Pakistan authorities to determine their identities and the nature of their business there if indeed these are the students who had gone missing.”

One of the young men is a student at Howard University named Ramy Zamzam. Last week the FBI contacted Samirah Ali, president of Howard University, and informed her that he had been missing for a week.

Ms Ali said “He's a very nice guy, very cordial, very friendly.”

Agencies add

“We have had access to the five detainees,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters on Thursday at an unrelated news conference. She called the move “part of the usual outreach” of the US government and declined further comment.

Senior police officer Haseeb Shah said “A two-member FBI team has arrived in Sargodha to interrogate the six men.”