Pakistan police arrest terror suspects

Police in Pakistan say they have arrested 16 Afghan nationals in overnight raids in the south-western city of Quetta on suspicion of links with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.

The suspects were captured from three areas of the city and were being interrogated, said Chaudhry Mohammed Yaqub, the police chief in southwestern Baluchistan province, of which Quetta is the capital.

He said some of the detainees had held “important positions during the Taliban’s tenure” in Afghanistan and “we suspect that some of them have close links with al-Qaida”.

Yaqub said the suspects were rounded up in well co-ordinated raids, which were conducted on a tip that some terror suspects were hiding in Kharotabad, Pashtun Abad and Nawan Kili.

“We have also heard that these people were involved in conspiracies against the Afghan government,” he said, and added: “Right now, these people are in our custody. They are being interrogated and everything will be clear in a day or so.”

Yaqub identified three of the suspects as Mullah Abdur Razzaq, Mullah Sher Dil and Mufti Rehmat Ullah.

However, Mullah Hakim Latifi, who claims he speaks for the Taliban, denied that any of their former government officials or Taliban leaders had been arrested in Quetta.

“There is no truth in this claim. Our people live in Afghanistan, not in Pakistan,” he said.

Pakistan used to be a Taliban supporter, but it switched sides after the September 11, 2001 attacks in America to support Washington. The US-led coalition forces ousted the hardline Islamic militia from power in late 2001.

Since then, Pakistani police and intelligence agents have arrested more than 600 terror suspects, including some al-Qaida operatives, who were later handed over to US officials for further investigation.