Foreigners arrested from Qilla Saifullah

Security forces rounded up 13 foreigners from Qilla Saifullah district, an area bordering with Afghanistan.

QUETTA: Security forces rounded up 13 foreigners, all suspects, from Qilla Saifullah district, an area bordering with Afghanistan, late Friday night.

According to reports, the foreigners were traveling in two private vehicles, heading towards Afghanistan from Quetta via Qilla Saifullah border, when security personnel intercepted them near Nasai area of the district. They were arrested and shifted to an undisclosed location for interrogations.

Sources said that three children and two women were among the suspects and that they belonged to Turkey and Russia. The suspects have been apprehended in connection with al Qaeda, however this was not confirmed by official sources.

Qilla Saifullah had been considered the safest, and hence the most regular, route for terrorists, particularly foreigners, going to and coming from Afghanistan. It was used by the Afghan Taliban while escaping from Afghanistan, local residents claimed.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2010.