SA men 'trained terrorists'
2004-07-26 12:48
Tisha Steyn
Cape Town - Efforts to confirm whether one or more South Africans have been arrested during a raid on a suspected terrorist hide-out in eastern Pakistan failed on Monday.
Pauline Cilliers of the foreign affairs office in Pretoria confirmed that the department was aware of the reports.
All efforts to get hold of Ronnie Mamoepe, national foreign affairs spokesperson, failed, as he was "in a meeting".
Cilliers said they were "running around after receiving the report".
However, the first secretary of the Pakistan High Commission in Pretoria, Jawed Khattak, was available and told News24 that two South African men were apparently being held.
The website of Indian newspaper Dawn named the two South Africans as Zubair Ismael and Feroze.
Ismael was reportedly arrested along with his Pakistani wife Asya.
An earlier Associated Press report from Islamabad stated that three men, apparently a South African, a Sudanese and a Kenyan, were arrested along with others after a 12-hour shootout with security services in a small town in eastern Pakistan.
Neither the government of Punjab nor Punjab police would confirm if the arrested men belonged to Al Qaeda terror network, reported Dawn.
According to Dawn, police commandos surrounded the house in Mohallah Islam Nagar after officials of an intelligence agency confirmed, with the help of a foreigner in their custody, that there were foreigners in the house.
"The commandos ordered them to surrender, but instead of giving themselves up, the inmates opened fire on security forces. The commandos returned fire. Local people said that firing from both sides continued intermittently. Police evacuated the adjoining houses fearing a large-scale attack from the terrorists," Dawn reported.
According to the website, the siege continued for "the entire Saturday night and until 09:00 on Sunday". Eventually police commandos stormed the house after breaking the walls and the roof of one of the rooms. At one stage part of the house was on fire.
The siege only ended when the commandos used tear-gas, and a number of foreign nationals appeared in a window and indicated they wanted to surrender.
Police teams found two Kalashnikov rifles, two pistols, two hand-grenades, two laptop computers and other accessories and a large number of bullets in the house. They also found atlases, maps of some countries and some literature in Arabic. A packet containing a powder-like chemical was also seized.
The initial investigation showed that the foreigners had rented the house from a bank manager about one and a half month ago. Police detained a real estate dealer.
Dawn said five of the men, including the two South Africans, received training in Afghanistan and Iran and were believed to have been involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan over the past three years.
- SAPA