Al-Qaeda link to SA 'ludicrous'

2004-08-03 19:57

Johannesburg - The government was urged on Tuesday to help two South Africans being detained in Pakistan on suspicion of being recruits of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

A Pakistani official said Abu Bakar and Zubair Ismail had told interrogators they had planned to attack tourist sites in Johannesburg.

Last week, the foreign affairs ministry named the two men as Feroze Ganchi, a medical doctor from Fordsburg, Johannesburg, and 20-year-old student Zubair Ismail, from Laudium, Pretoria.

The Media Review Network, an advocacy group which aims to dispel myths and stereotypes about Islam, urged the government and human rights organisations to insist on immediate access to the two South Africans.

MRN chairman Iqbal Jassat described the claims as "ludicrous".

The men were arrested last week in the eastern Pakistani city of Gujrat along with Tanzanian al-Qaeda operative Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani.

Fears of torture

Jassat questioned what possible motives the two could have had to plant explosives at tourist sites in Johannesburg.

"South Africa has resolutely stood by its principles that any action taken in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere must be done under the aegis of the United Nations or other multilateral organisations. Why should they risk alienating the South African government?" he said.

"This statement issued by the Pakistani intelligence, probably at the behest of their masters in the American Central Intelligence Agency/Mossad, surely cannot be considered by even the most dimwitted, as credible."

Jassat said he feared the two South Africans were being tortured into making the confessions.

- SAPA