Police claimed the three suspects, Shoaib Mughal, Muhammad Shahid and Hunbal Akhtar, were arrested from the Islamabad Highway near the Kaak Pul area on Tuesday night. Sihala police intercepted the suspects on the National Highway after they did not stop their car on the police picket at Kaak Pul.
Police said they also recovered CDs, maps of President House, Parliament House, Times Square New York, a restaurant in Islamabad, some jihadi literature, a laptop computer and arms and ammunition from the possession of the suspects. Their car’s registration number also proved to be fake.
During interrogation, suspects said they had links with the TTP and provided financial and material support to Faisal Shehzad. They said they provided sanctuary to Shehzad in Islamabad when he came to Pakistan on “training mission”.
They also claimed to have provided Fasial Shehzad explosives material for the failed bombing bid. He was also trained how to handle arms and ammunition and bomb-making. The suspects also transferred some $13,000 to Faisal Shehzad’s account in New York. Police said the three arrested suspects were also planning to launch terrorist attacks on sensitive installations in Islamabad.
Earlier, they had provided sanctuary to three suicide bombers Faqir Muhammad, Qari Hussain’s brother Hassan and an unidentified man who conducted suicide attacks in Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir.
They had gone into hiding in tribal areas immediately after the arrest of Faisal Shehzad in New York. They are also said to have met the chief of the TTP, Hakeemullah Mehsud, police claimed. Sihala area police registered cases against the suspects and further investigations were underway. However, sources told The Express Tribune that the three men had been picked up in the first week of May, immediately after Faisal Shehzad was arrested in New York. Their families had also filed writ petitions regarding their disappearance in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, alleging that their sons had been picked up by intelligence agencies without charge. Meanwhile SSP Islamabad Tahir Alam Khan while submitting a report regarding these three missing persons before the division bench of Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudry said that all three suspects had been arrested.
He also said that an FIR has been registered against them and they were in Adiyala Jail in safe custody.
Later, the Chief Justice, while disposing of the petition, directed the relatives of the three men to approach the high court for their release.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 9th, 2010.
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