KARACHI, April 1: Agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, with the help of local intelligence agencies, are extensively hunting for suspected Al Qaeda operatives who they believe could be in Pakistan.

The FBI claimed that as a result of military and intelligence actions in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere, a massive quantity of documents, video and audiotapes and electronic equipment had been seized.

The FBI has recently located Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Rawalpindi. He was arrested and moved out of Pakistan. Khalid Shaikh was named in the list of 22 “most wanted terrorists” in connection with the 9/11 attacks. He is so far the only person to have been located from the list of 22, according to FBI documents downloaded on Tuesday from its official website www. fbi. gov.

The list of 22 “most wanted terrorists” carries the names of Osama bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Abdelkarim Hussein Mohamed Al-Nasser, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, Muhsin Musa Marwalli Atwah, Ali Arwa, Anas Al-Liby, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, Hasan Izz-Al-Din, Ahmed Mohammed Hamed Ali, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Imad Fayez Mugniyah, Mustafa Mohamed Fadhil, Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, Abdul Rahman Yasin, Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam, Ahmad Ibrahim Al-Mughassil, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (located), Muhammad Atef, Ali Saed Bin Ali El-Hoorie, Saif Al- Adel and Ibrahim Salih Mohammed Al-Yacoub. The photographs of all these suspects are available on the FBI official website.

Two of these suspects, the FBI believes, went to Afghanistan through Pakistan and they are Ahmed Mohammed Hamed Ali and Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah.

The information collected by the FBI shows that Ahmed Mohammed Hamed Ali was allegedly involved in a conspiracy to kill US nationals, destroy buildings and property belonging to the US and to destroy national defence utilities. Ali was born, in 1965, in Egypt and he speaks Arabic.

The FBI believes that Ali may have had formal training in agriculture and may have worked in this field. He lived in Kenya until fleeing that country on August 2, 1998, for Karachi. He is believed to be now in Afghanistan. Ali is wanted in connection with the August 7, 1998, bombing of the US embassies in Daress Salam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya.

The FBI claims that Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah fled Nairobi on August 6, 1998 for Karachi. He is believed to be now in Afghanistan, the FBI claims. Abdullah was born in Egypt. He has been indicted for his alleged involvement in the bombing of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

The US Department for Rewards for Justice Programme offered a reward of up to 25 million US dollars each for information leading directly to the apprehension and/or conviction of Ahmed Mohammed Hamed Ali and Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah.

The FBI is also looking for a Pakistani doctor for an alleged sexual assault on a female patient in a major hospital at Philadelphia on October 3, 1996. After state charges were filed against the doctor, a federal warrant was issued for his arrest in the eastern district of Pennsylvania in July 1997. He may be travelling with his wife, who is also a physician, the FBI says.

The FBI is seeking information on two other Pakistani nationals, Mohammed Khan and Afia Siddiqui. Both of them are doctors.

Although the FBI has no information showing that Dr Khan is connected with specific terrorist activities, it wants to locate and question him.

Likewise, the FBI does not have information about Dr Afia Siddiqui whether she is linked with any specific terrorist activity, but it is trying to locate and question her. It is not known where Dr Siddiqui is now, but the FBI believes she is in Pakistan.

There are unconfirmed reports that Dr Siddiqui was picked up in Karachi by an intelligence agency and she was shifted to an unknown place for questioning. However, the Inspector-General of the Sindh Police, Syed Kamal Shah, denied this and said: “We have neither arrested her nor do we have information about her arrest by any other law-enforcement agency.”

Top-ranking officials in the provincial and federal government have also expressed ignorance about her arrest.

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