Detained US-origin ‘jihad seekers’ would not be extradited: Pak official

ISLAMABAD - All the five American terror suspects, who were arrested from Sargodha, Punjab, earlier this month, would be tried in Pakistan, a senior Pakistani police official has said.

Interacting with media persons during a press conference here, Sargodha police chief Dr. Usman Anwar said that interrogation of the suspects has been completed and they would be tried over terrorism charges, as links between them and some of the banned terror organizations have been established.

Anwar said that the men, all in their late 20s, will be produced in an anti-terrorism court on Friday (today), and the court will be requested to hand over the accused to the police for further questioning.

Waqar Husain Khan, 22 (Virginia), Ahmed Abdullah Mani, 20 (Virginia), Ramay S Zamzam, 22 (Egypt), Iman Hasan Yamar, 17 (California), and Omar Farouk, 24 (Virginia) were arrested from Sargodha on December 9.

The five ‘jihad seekers’had visited a religious seminary linked to the outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammad in Hyderabad, police said.

Meanwhile, the Lahore High Court (LHC) has dismissed a petition seeking access to the terror suspects, and against their possible extradition.

The petition, which was filed by Khalid Khwaja of the Defence Human Rights, a Non-Government Organisation (NGO), sought direct access to the detainees.

Khwaja, in his petition, said that the men had came to Pakistan to wage ‘jihad’, which was ‘not a crime under any law.’

He requested the court to define ‘jihad’ in the light of law saying that having a wish of ‘jihad’ against anti-Muslim forces could not be treated as ‘terrorism.’

LHC Chief Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif rejected the petition saying the court is not subjected to define ‘jihad’, and added that the terror suspects were being interrogated under the Pakistani law. (ANI)