NIA clears SA men in Pakistan

2004-08-21 19:13

Cape Town - A team from South Africa's National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has returned from a fact-finding mission in Pakistan, SABC reported.

The NIA said it had found no evidence that Feroze Ganchi, and Zubair Ismael, together with a top al-Quaeda member, were planning to target various sites in South Africa.

The NIA has been questioning the men over the past few days.

The agency searched through material and found no maps of sites that would have been targeted in South Africa.

But hopes of Ismail returning to his Laudium home looked bleak.

Vusi Mavimbela, the director-general of the NIA, said the law would serve its course in Pakistan and there was nothing the NIA could do.

Mavimbela said al-Qaeda recruited all over the world but that did not mean that South Africa was in danger.

- News24