PAKISTAN – Five young Americans detained in Pakistan wanted to join a holy war and were in contact with militants through the internet, officials said yesterday.
The five men, students in their 20s from northern Virginia, were detained this week in the city of Sargodha in Punjab province, 190km (120 miles) southeast of Islamabad, security officials said.
The suspects were 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- Qaeda.
The case is likely to focus attention on nuclear-armed Pakistan’s performance in fighting militants as Washington presses Islamabad to root out Islamist fighters crossing the border to attack US-led troops in Afghanistan.
“We watched them for 1½ days and then arrested them,” said Usman Anwar, police chief of Sargodha. “We seized laptops and other things from their possession. Later we came to know that they have come here with the intention of ‘jihad’.”
The case could fan fears in western countries that the sons of immigrants from Muslim countries are being drawn to violent Islamist militancy, a process made easier by the internet.
The FBI said in a statement released in the United States on Wednesday that it was in contact with the families of the five as well as law-enforcement authorities in Pakistan.
A Pakistani security official said the men were detained on Monday. They had flown to Karachi on November 30th, travelled to Lahore on December 5th, and then on to Sargodha, he said.
“No charge has been framed against them. Investigations are under way as to whether they have any links with extremist groups.”
The suspects were wary about being detected through sending e-mails so instead they shared a password so different members of their group could access the same e-mail site and read messages saved there as drafts, he said. “This is the same method used by al-Qaeda.”
– (Reuters)