SA pair 'isolated' in Pakistan
2004-09-07 21:17
Pretoria - South African consular staff have not yet gained access to two citizens held on terrorism accusations in Pakistan for more than six weeks, said the foreign affairs department in Pretoria on Tuesday.
"Our diplomatic mission in Pakistan is in constant contact with the Pakistani foreign ministry to get access, but to no avail so far," said department spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.
South Africa had no information on what state the men were in nor the conditions under which they were being held.
Mamoepa said there was no indication when consular access would be granted.
The men, Feroze Ganchi and Zubair Ismail, have not yet been charged with a crime.
Ganchi, a doctor from Fordsburg, Johannesburg, and 20-year-old Ismail, a student from Laudium in Pretoria, have been held in Pakistan since July 25.
They were among about a dozen people detained after a 12-hour shoot-out with security forces at a house in Gujrat, south-east of Islamabad.
Tanzanian al-Qaeda suspect Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was reportedly among those arrested.
He is wanted by the United States for the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
The South African government has dismissed media reports of Ganchi and Ismail planning to attack targets in their home country.
It has vowed to continue exerting diplomatic pressure to gain access to the men.
The Pakistani high commission in Pretoria could not comment on Tuesday.
- SAPA