Pakistan published photos yesterday of six terror suspects, including a top al-Qaeda operative accused of masterminding two attempts to assassinate the president, and offered a big reward for information leading to their arrests.
The advertisement published in the country's leading newspapers carried a photograph of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, a Libyan accused by President General Pervez Musharraf of being behind two failed attempts on the president's life last year.
PHOTO: AFP
Musharraf escaped unhurt in both attacks in December, when terrorists tried to blow up his motorcade on a road near the capital, Islamabad. The first attack did not injure anybody, but 17 people died in the second attack.
Since then, Pakistani police and security agencies have been looking for al-Libbi and other suspects believed responsible for the two attacks.
On Wednesday, Pakistan offered a reward of 20 million rupees (US$344,827) each for any information leading to the arrest of al-Libbi, believed to be a top al-Qaeda operative, and Amjad Hussain, who is best known as Amjad Farooqi, a Pakistani militant who also allegedly played key role in those two attacks.
Four other suspects whose photos were published in the newspapers were; Mati-ur-Rahman, Mansoor best knwon Chota Ibrahim, Qari Ehsan and Omar Aqdas. It was not immediately clear why those four were being sought.
The advertisement gave no details about the nature of charges against the men and only said they are "most wanted terrorists" who are "wanted for acts of terrorism."
The latest government move came a day after the father of an alleged al-Qaeda computer expert filed a lawsuit challenging what he called the illegal detention of his son, who was captured last month.
Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan was captured by Pakistani intelligence agents July 13 in the eastern city of Lahore, and a search of his computers uncovered surveillance documents of five financial institutions in the US, prompting a terror alert in three US cities.
Later, Khan led police to a hide-out of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian al-Qaeda wanted for the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in east Africa. Ghailani was captured July 25 after a 12-hour shootout in eastern industrial city of Gujrat.
Babar Awan, a defense lawyer, told reporters on Tuesday that Khan's father has filed a lawsuit in a court at Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad, "against illegal detention of his son."
"Whatever the allegation against the boy may be, he has a right to be defended through a counsel of his own choice," Awan said.
He said that Khan's family had learned about his detention only through the media.
"We don't know why and where he [Khan] is being held."
Awan said the court is yet to act on the petition of Khan's father, who is a flight attendant with Pakistan International Airlines.
Under Pakistani laws, such lawsuits are usually admitted for hearing, and the government is asked to explain reasons for holding any particular suspect. A law also gives the government the right to detain any terror suspect for up to one year.
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
APPORTIONING BLAME: The US president said that there were ‘millions of people dead because of three people’ — Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy US President Donald Trump on Monday resumed his attempts to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths. Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelenskiy six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden. Trump told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.” “Let’s say Putin No. 1, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, No. 2, and
RSS