KOHAT, June 11: The joint teams of FBI and ISI are following the tracks of wives and children of Arab nationals having links with Al Qaeda in the mountains along the NWFP-Punjab border in the Karak district.

These women and children went missing after getting wind of the raids conducted four days ago at the residence and Madressah of former JUI MNA Maulana Shaheed Ahmad.

A highly-placed source told Dawn on Tuesday that the army intelligence and personnel of Special Services Group had sealed all entry points into Punjab from Karak to arrest these Afghan women and their seven male companions who had taken refuge at the house of Maulana Shaheed Ahmad three months ago.

The raids were conducted at the Warana area in the Mombati village after the intelligence agencies bugged the telephone of Maulana Shaheed and detected suspicious conversations between some women in Arabic few days ago.

The Intelligence Bureau was asked to confirm the presence of these women and their relationship with Arab nationals after which a joint raid was conducted which proved futile. An inquiry is currently under way to ascertain how the news of expected raid was leaked to the suspects who later escaped to some unknown place.

A source who is privy to the investigations and raids told Dawn that there were 12 women, five children and seven men residing in the house of Maulana Shaheed who after three months turned out to be the wives of some Arab nationals fighting in Afghanistan.

Four of the men left for Karachi a fortnight ago leaving behind their rest of companions.

Last week, the FBI and army personnel cordoned off the residence of Maulana Shaheed. After holding talks with the Maulana they were allowed to search the place. However, the raiding team could not find any of the wanted women in the house.

The authorities questioned Maulana and his son Shah Abdul Aziz. Later, both of them were released. Since then the telephones of Maulana’s residence and Madressah are dead and nobody has seen them for the last many days.

An official of the local police while confirming the raid said that police were usually not informed about the purpose of the operations conducted by the army.

The FBI team which conducted raids in Karak had come from Bannu and Miranshah where they had established their permanent offices. The local people had seen these men in Land Cruisers piloted by army vehicles twice in the area after the last week’s raids. They were searching for more women, a witness said.

A leader of JUI told Dawn that they had the resources to protect the lives of the fighters and their families and nobody would be allowed to harm them. They were at a safe place and in strong hands, he claimed.