LAHORE: The Wednesday arrest of five US-born Pakistanis from a Jaish-e-Mohammad-run facility in the Sargodha city of Punjab, seems to have solved the case of mysterious missing of at least three Pakistani-American students from the Washington DC metro area. Earlier, it was reported by the American media that the American federal investigators are 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.
According to the Punjab police circles, the five Americans detained by them have confessed during preliminary investigations that they wanted to join a holy war and were in contact with some Pakistani militants belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohammad through Internet. The sources said that the five suspects are being investigated for possible links to a Pakistan-based group suspected of carrying out high-profile attacks and with links to the Taliban and al-Qaida. According to preliminary investigations, they traveled to the city of Hyderabad, returned to Karachi, the commercial capital of Pakistan, and then went to Lahore, the Punjab provincial capital, where they spent five days before going to Sargodha. One member of the group, identified as Umar Faruq, actually belongs to Sargodha and allegedly maintained links with the banned jehadi organisation Jaish-e-Mohammad-led by Maulana Masood Azhar.
The divisional police officer (DPO) of Sargodha district told newsmen Thursday that the police watched the group of five for two days and then arrested them. “We seized laptops and other things from their possession. We have also come to know that they have come here with the intention of jehad”, he added. Usman Anwar identified the foreigners as two Pakistani-Americans, an Egyptian, an Ethiopian and an Eritrean. Anwar said that police arrested a man named Khalid Chaudhry, who he identified as a US national and a Jaish-e-Mohammad leader who is father of the two Pakistani-American brothers aged 22 and 25 years. The US embassy in Islamabad was unable to confirm that US nationals were being held in Pakistan, saying they were investigating. 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.
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