Foreign militants being arrested – Reality or Drama?

(THE NEWS) 40 Uzbek militants held in Kohat
Friday, October 17, 2008

KOHAT: The police and the Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel arrested 40 Uzbek militants at the Gulshan checkpoint and the Kotal Pass here on Thursday evening.

District Police Officer Abdullah Khan [...] said the Uzbeks did not possess any travel documents but their residential address was that of Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan.

[...] the police arrested 18 suspected militants, identified as Noor, Akram, Baz Muhammad, Muhammad Alam, Hayatullah, Ramzan, Kareem, Noorullah, Gul Ahmed, Zaman, Saifullah, Amirullah, Baz Muhammad, Yar Muhammad, Asadullah, Asif, Khuda Dad and Gul Agha.

[...] Sources said the militants were set to leave for Karachi and Quetta, as they had already hired a bus in Kohat city. They added that the arrested militants were among those fighting against the security forces in the Darra Adamkhel region.

Full Report at:
The News, 17th October, 2008

(DAWN) Officers claim arresting 26 Uzbeks and Afghans
PESHAWAR, Oct 17

Security officials on Friday claimed arresting 26 foreigners — 14 Uzbeks and 12 Afghans — for their alleged involvement in acts of terrorism in the Darra Adamkhel Frontier Region.Officials said the suspects who were in a passenger bus were detained at a checkpost in Spina Thana.
[...]
Some reporters, however, were able to have a brief conversation with the detainees who said they had been living in refugee camps in the NWFP.

Some of them claimed they were carpet weavers and had been associated with the industry for several years. They also said that the authorities had no evidence to justify their detention.

They were from different Afghan provinces and were going to Quetta when they were asked to disembark from the bus.

On Wednesday, security forces had arrested 38 Afghans in the same area for entering Pakistani illegally.

A detainee, who identified himself as Gul Agha, told Dawn that they were skilled workers and were going to Quetta in search of jobs. He said that he and his family had been living legally in the Naguman refugee camp in Charsadda for 30 years.

He said that he possessed the Proof of Registration card by issued Nadra which allowed him to stay anywhere in Pakistan till 2009. Another man named Abdur Rauf, who could speak only Persian, said that he belonged to Maidan Shaher district in Afghanistan and was a skilled worker. “We are being victimised. We have no link with Uzbeks or any other militant group,” he said.
Full Report at: Dawn, 18th October 2008

Filed under: Conspiracies, Excerpts & Quotes, Politik