Lahore, May 24: Pakistani security and intelligence officials have detained three suspects over the past three days for their possible links with the alleged Times Square bomb plotter Faisal Shahzad.
However, putting the record straight, a senior interior ministry official said on Sunday that none of them has been formally charged or arrested in connection with the case.
“ We are currently interrogating all the people Shahzad had telephonic conversations with and those he met and stayed with while visiting Pakistan last year,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “ We have so far investigated about half a dozen people. Some of them have been allowed to go home. Others will be kept in custody till we are able to either charge or formally arrest, or would be freed if found to be innocent,” the official added.
The official, however, confirmed that at least three youngsters, among several others earlier, were taken into custody in Islamabad over the past three days.
One of them, an unnamed young man, was picked up from the city’s Kohsar market in a “ dramatic manner”, a report in the Dawn newspaper said. The man put up some resistance, which led to an exchange of harsh words. He was handcuffed and taken in a vehicle to an undisclosed place, the report said.
Shahid Hussain, another suspect, was nabbed on Thursday. He was picked up from his house in one of the capital’s “ middle class localities”. “ Three persons knocked. When I opened the door, they introduced themselves as officials from the intelligence bureau ( IB). The sleuths took my husband ( Shahid) away and since then we have had no contact with him,” Shahid’s wife claimed.
Shahid’s father stressed that he knew nothing of the alleged New York bomb plotter and has never seen him with his son. “ He never came to our house. I don’t know whether my son had any association with him,” Shahid’s father said on condition of anonymity.
A foreign news agency, meanwhile, quoted Pakistani intelligence sources as saying that Shahid allegedly helped arrange money for Shahzad’s mission.
The news agency also reported that Shahid and another detained man, Shoaib Mughal, “ admitted that they assisted the Times Square suspect. One of the youngsters even accused the interrogators of ‘ siding with the infidels’.” The intelligence official, a member of the team quizzing the suspects, went on to say that two detainees proudly described themselves as Shahzad’s friend and said they had done nothing wrong.
Mughal, who is being suspected of acting as a go- between for Shahzad and the Pakistani Taliban, was detained on May 10 along with Rana Salman Ashraf.
Ashraf’s father runs a popular catering agency. Both Mughal and Ashraf are into the catering profession. Ashraf ’ s father’s catering company has apparently provided “ services” for the US embassy in Islamabad.
“ Mughal runs a hawala business as well,” an investigator said.
The sleuths also confirmed that one of the detained men was a former major in the Pakistani army. “ The man has strongly denied any link with Shahzad, even though he does not want to hide his opposition to the ( Pakistani) military offensive against the ( Pakistani) Taliban,” a source said.
The Los Angeles Times on Sunday reported that “ the ex- major learned of Shahzad’s plans from another suspect who is accused of funding the operation”. “ We are being told that the exmajor was aware of the plot. We don’t know the extent of his involvement though. But he had connections with the Pakistani Taliban,” the newspaper quoted senior anti- terrorism officials as saying.
A source divulged the exmajor’s name as Adnan. “ He was sacked from the military two months ago,” the source said.
—Agencies