LAHORE: The five American nationals who had traveled to Pakistan to wage jehad against the forces of infidel but got arrested last week by the Lahore police have regrets that they could not lay their lives in fight against the occupation forces in Afghanistan.
According to the District Police Officer (DPO) of Sargodha Usman Anwer, who is part of the Joint Investigating Team grilling the five accused in Lahore, the under detention US nationals have no remorse for what they were planning. He quoted them as telling their interrogators: “We have regrets that we could not embrace martyrdom for our cause to wage jehad against the United States. Since our failure to embrace shahadat we want this other way – hang us,” the DPO quoted one of the accused Zamzam as saying. Waqar Husain Khan, 22 (Virginia), Ahmed Abdullah Mani, 20 (Virginia), Ramay Zamzam, 22 (Egypt), Iman Hasan Yamar, 17 (California), and Omar Farouk, 24 (Virginia) were arrested from Sargodha on December 9. Khan, Mani, Zamzam and Yamar, all from Alexandria, arrived in Karachi on Nov 30 from there they left for Hyderabad and then Lahore before reaching Sargodha residence of Omar Farouk on December 7.
All the five US-born Pakistanis were arrested from the Sargodha district of the Punjab province, where they had been staying at a Jaish-e-Mohammad facility. A week before they arrest, it was reported by the American media that the FBI was searching for a Howard University dental student and four other Muslim men reportedly missing from the Washington, DC area. The concern was expressed that they might have been sent abroad to train for jehad. The five Americans have already confessed during investigations that they wanted to join a holy war and had established contacts with some Pakistani militants through Internet. Their arrest came as David Headley, another American citizen, of the Pakistani origin, pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges in a case that has raised fears about Islamic militant groups’ ability to recruit and operate inside the United States.
According to DPO Sargodha Usman Anwer, the Pakistani police had already provided the arrested Americans with English translation of the Holy Quran. “The five US students hold the US responsible for all miseries of the Muslim world. They hate the United States policies in Muslim world, especially in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine”, Usman Anwer said, adding that the investigators had long sessions with them and avoided any form of torture to extract information. “They are quite composed and very much clear about what they were going to do,” he said. “Though the arrested boys have no strong religious background, they got inclined to extremism, what they say, because of the US actions in the Muslim world. They were so desperate to wage holy war against the US that when militant groups like Jamaatul Daawa and Jaish-e-Muhammad refused to take them in their folds, they formed their own group.”
“The boys told us that they had come to Pakistan after one Saifullah (probably a codename) of Al-Qaeda assured them through emails that he would help them fulfill their designs. They got upset when they lost contact with him (Saifullah) after reaching Pakistan and sought help from other militant outfits,” the DPO said. The official informed that the Americans had been booked under section 11-V of the Anti-Terrorism Act. Under the section they may face life imprisonment. They are on physical remand till Dec 25. The Lahore High Court has already ordered not to deport or handover them to any foreign agency including the FBI without court’s permission. An FBI team had reportedly already left for US after interrogating them.
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