Islamabad, March 30
Al-Qaida second-in-command and close aide of Osama bin Laden, Abu Zubaida, was among 65 militants arrested in the joint US-Pakistan raids on hideouts of the terror network inside Pakistan in the past two days.One of the arrested has a close resemblance to Abu Zubaida and other details would emerge during the interrogation, The News daily today quoted officials as saying.
“However, sources insisted he was Zubaida”, it said.
Zubaida, who coordinated the activities of Al-Qaida, was injured in the operations by the Pakistani and US forces in Faisalabad and Lahore.
The operations were temporarily halted after the capture of the Al-Qaida activists, mostly foreigners. The decision was taken as others holding out in other hideouts might have gone underground, the daily said.
The raids were launched following a tip-off from US intelligence services.
Meanwhile, the US and Pakistani authorities are trying to determine whether an Arab arrested in raids is a key lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, an official said.
“We are trying to confirm the identity of an Arab who is believed to be Abu Zubaydah,” Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema, an Interior Ministry official, told AP.
The arrested militants include members of the banned Jaish-e-Muhammad and Harkat-ul- Mujahideen, arrested from their hideouts in Faisalabad and Lahore.
Pakistan on Thursday permitted a contingent of heavily armed US “agents” to join its commando forces to raid a string of well-guarded houses in Faisalabad, Punjab, where suspected Al-Qaida operatives were hiding.
While two Arab nationals were killed in the raid, 50 others, including 42 Arabs, five Afghans and some Pakistanis belonging to the Jaish-e-Muhammad and Harkat-ul- Mujahideen were arrested, reports in the local media here said.
Several persons were arrested in simultaneous raids in Lahore the night before, the reports said. The intelligence about the suspected hideouts in Faisalabad and Lahore had been provided by the FBI.
PTI, AP
