PESHAWAR, Aug 29: Police said on Thursday that they are investigating whether a dozen detained militants from an outlawed extremist group had links to Al Qaeda.

The militants — eleven Pakistanis and one Afghan from the banned Harkatul Mujahedin — were captured on Tuesday during a raid on a bungalow here.

“We are investigating every aspect, including their links with any foreign group, including Al Qaeda,” a senior officer from the Crimes Investigation Department (CID) told AFP.

The militants had been planning attacks, police told magistrate Akhtar Zareef Khan during a remand hearing on Wednesday.

Three video CDs with television recordings of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and the World Trade Center collapse in the Sept 11 attacks were seized during the raid, with a cache of time bombs, Kalashnikov rifles and explosives.

The militants had set up an office in the Peshawar house, police said.

The militants, most of whom come from Punjab and NWFP, were being interrogated, the officer said.

“We are interrogating them ourselves. They are still in our custody and we have not handed them over to any other agency,” the officer said.

The only foreigner among the group was an Afghan, Siafiullah, he said.

He denied reports that US Federal Bureau of Investigation agents had taken part in the raid.

“No US or FBI agent participated in the raid or provided intelligence. This was entirely a Pakistani police operation based on tip-offs from Pakistani intelligence agencies,” he said.—AFP