Pak court extends custody of five US origin ‘jihad seekers’

ISLAMABAD - A local Pakistani court on Friday extended the custody of five US origin terror suspects, who were arrested earlier this month from Sargodha, Punjab, for 10 more days till January 4.

All the five ‘jihad seekers’ were produced before an anti-terrorism court in Sargodha today, following which Judge Mohammad Aslam extended their custody on the plea of the police, which said that more time was needed to complete the investigations.

“We do not think that a 10-day remand is sufficient to investigate this complex matter. At next hearing we may ask for more time,” a foreign news agency quoted a senior Pakistani police official, Haseeb Shah, as saying.

“We hope to get further clues. A scientific investigation is required in the case and we hope that the evidences found from their laptops could lead to breaking up of a terrorist network,” Shah added.

During the hearing, another police official, Amir Abbas told the court that during investigations, officials scanned the common email accounts of the suspects in which the name of a Pakistani nuclear plant was mentioned.

Abbas said since the issue is sensitive, officials would take more time to complete the probe.

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. (ANI)