Date:05/03/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/03/05/stories/2003030503521200.htm

Front Page

Pak. Major suspected of having Al-Qaeda links

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD MARCH 4 . Pakistani intelligence personnel have reportedly detained a Major of the Pakistan Army, Adil Qudoos, who is described as an uncle of Ahmad Qudoos, who was arrested at the weekend along with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged Al-Qaeda mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The English daily, Dawn, in a front page report from Kohat in the North- West Frontier Province (NWFP), said the Major was detained at his Cantonment residence here on Saturday night.``Only Pakistani agencies were involved in the operation and the Major has been detained to confirm whether he has links with his nephew or Khalid Shaikh Mohammed,'' the paper said, quoting sources.

A group of senior military officials went to the house of the Major, who belongs to the 45 Signals regiment, and carried out a thorough check of his house. His wife and a daughter were secluded during the search.

The Major was asked whether Shaikh Mohammed had visited Kohat in recent days or last year. The Major's wife asked the raiding team where her husband was being taken and for what reason. She was reportedly told that they would let her know after three or four days.

In a related development, the Qudoos family said that no Al-Qaeda activist including Khalid Shaikh Mohammad had been arrested from their house in Rawalpindi as claimed by the authorities.

``It is absolutely incorrect to say that any Al-Qaeda member including Khalid Shaikh Mohammad and another person who the officials claimed was an Egyptian were arrested from our house,'' the family members told a news conference.

They have threatened to move the court against the authorities for raiding their home and arresting an `innocent' Ahmed Qudoos.

A report in the local press said that Qudoos, a person with "low IQ', was on the pay rolls of the United Nations.

``My son has no linkage with Al-Qaeda or any other group of extremists. Neither any person named as Khalid Shaikh Mohammad has been arrested from my house.

My innocent son is on the lifelong stipend of the United Nations special fund for low level IQ persons,'' Mahlaqa Khanum, mother of Ahmad and also Nazim (area chief) of Jamaat-e-Islami, Westridge told a news conference.

The JI chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, has condemned the raid and arrest of Mr. Qudoos and alleged that the whole episode was a conspiracy to defame his organisation.

She said that the armed men stayed in the house for more than an hour and took away some dairies, computer disks and U.S. dollars.