**Hockey hero, family held in Karachi raid
- Two Qaeda suspects caught after gunbattle, one escapes**
By Hasan Mansoor
KARACHI: Famed hockey player Shahid Ali Khan and five of his family members were arrested in an early morning raid carried out by the Rangers and police here on Thursday. The Sindh Home secretary told Daily Times the raid netted two suspected Al Qaeda operatives.
Hundreds of armed personnel stormed the Gulshan-e-Maimar double storey residence of the international right-half player around 5.00am on Thursday after securing the neighbourhood.
Security forces and the suspected terrorists faced off for almost two hours during which time gunfire was exchanged and two hand-grenades lobbed from the second storey of the W-block bungalow. Residents of the area say they heard several explosions.
“Only one of the grenades exploded,” said Inspector General of Sindh Police Kamal Shah. “We forced two of the foreign nationals to surrender. There were no casualties.”
Sources say the men, whose identity could not be confirmed, are likely of Arab stock. Police is continuing the search for a third man who was reportedly injured but managed to escape arrest.
Mr Khan played in the 1973 World Cup in Amsterdam and has served as an international hockey umpire. A former team mate now a member of a political party, wishing not to be identified, described Mr Khan as a God fearing man and added he could not imagine the 45-year-old was even remotely linked to the Qaeda network.
Police did not confirm the arrests but sources said Mr Khan, his daughter Sarah, 23, and her two-month-old son Zaid, his sons Farooq, 26, Hasan, 13, as well as his nephew Jawad Jamal and a maid were hauled up for questioning. Sarah, her son Zaid and the maid were released late Thursday night.
Mr Khan’s wife Sabiha, an activist of the Jamaat-e-Islami, was touring Interior Sindh at the time the raid took place. Professor Ghafoor Ahmed, central vice president of her party, slammed the arrests of Mr Khan and his kin. “This is all being done to appease the US. This raid was supervised by the FBI and they did not even spare the two-month-old infant.” Mr Ahmed and his party demand that all US forces present in Pakistan leave the country.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_10-1-2003_pg1_1
Two Arabs among nine held in Karachi
Seven family members of a ex-hockey Olympian released; al-Qaeda link alleged
By Azfar-ul-Ashfaque
KARACHI: The law-enforcement agencies, assisted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) picked up seven members of a Pakistani family and two Arabs suspected to be al-Qaeda militants, after raiding the house of a woman leader of Jamaat-e-Islami in Gulshan-e-Maymar in the wee hours of Thursday, police and witnesses said.
Though in a late night development, the LEAs released the seven members of the Pakistani family but they kept the identities of the arrested Arabs and further details secret, as they believed that these arrests may lead to the arrest of a most-wanted al-Qaeda militant Khalid Shaikh Muhammad.
Sindh police chief Syed Kamal Shah told The News that police and other law-enforcement agencies arrested only two foreigners, who were being interrogated. The police authorities were tight-lipped about the arrest of seven members of a local family from the house.
Well-placed sources said after arresting the Arabs, police handed them over to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) who, after initial investigation, raided a house in Shah Faisal Colony in search of a Pakistani, Dr Akmal, who was the President of Pakistan Islamic Medical Association, and his brother Arshad but could not find them as they were out.
The sources said the LEAs also recovered three AK-47 assault rifles, five hand grenades, a satellite phone, a laptop, few CDs and some books and about Rs 1 million local currency and $25,000 from the house, the sources added.
The sources said the FBI intercepted and traced the origin of a call made from a satellite phone and pinpointed the location to the ISI, who called the police and raided the house. Eyewitnesses said the operation began at around 5:45 am when a heavy contingent of police and paramilitary forces surrounded the roads and some
under-construction houses in Sector W-II, a sparsely populated area of Gulshan-e-Maymar. They raided a double-storey house (C-48) but retreated when some inmates hurled two hand-grenades from the first floor. The sources said one of the hand-grenades could not explode, while other went off but no one was hurt. Witnesses said police and Rangers started firing and some officials entered the house under cover of fire.
Ali, a teenage resident of a nearby house, told this correspondent that he awoke after hearing heavy fire. He went to the window of his room and saw dozens of police and Rangers personnel, surrounding a house in which one Shahid Ali Khan along with his family reside.
According to Ali, the firing continued for half an hour. When he and some other people came out from their houses for offering Fajr prayers at Masjid-e-Ayesha, situated in front of said house, the law-enforcement officials directed them to return to their homes. Witnesses said the whole operation was completed by about 8:15 am and the police locked the central door of the house.
The sources said the arrested family comprised an elderly man, Shahid Ali Khan, his two young sons Hasan and Farooq, his married daughter Saira and her two-year-old daughter, a nephew Jawad and a housemaid Nasim. Shahid was an Olympian and former player of Pakistan Hockey team and had played a World Cup tournament held in Holland some 27 years back. After retirement he became a hockey umpire.
The sources said Shahid’s wife Sabeeha was not at home at the time of the raid. She is a leader of Jamaat-e-Islami Women Wing and is on a visit to interior Sindh.
This correspondent visited the spot, some 22 kilometres away from the main city. The house, spread over an area of 600 yards, was locked, the windowpanes and some grills were smashed and few holes at the walls of the house could easily be seen. Two cars, a Suzuki Fx No K-7810 and a Hyundai and two motorcycles – a Kawasaki No KCZ-9848 and a Vespa KCF-999 – were parked in the house.
Local residents told The News that the family, residing in the house had shifted from the FB Area some four or five months ago. A local resident, Farooq, said that Shahid’s family lived at the ground floor of the house while the first floor was occupied by some other people. "Several times I saw three and four unknown persons (other than Shahid’s family), walking on the roof of the house, said Ali.
Local residents say the Suzuki Fx was owned by Shahid, and Vespa belonged to his son. They were unaware of the other vehicles parked in the house. The house from where the two Arabs were arrested is very close to the place from where the body of US journalist Daniel Pearl was found.
Inspector-General Police Kamal Shah said: “Police received an information from a local intelligence agency, raided the house and after an encounter nabbed two foreigners and handed them over to an intelligence agency.” When asked about the presence of FBI officials during the raid he said: “This is not to my knowledge.”
Regarding the nationality and names of the arrested suspects, the IG said: “They are being interrogated and we will inform the media about details after completing the investigations.” However, well-placed sources said one Arab belonges to Morocco, while the other is from Yemen and they are identified as Abu Omar alias Azam and Abu Hamza alias Atiq. They said the arrested men were active members of al-Qaeda and were hiding in the house since the last many weeks.
In a late night development, the seven members of Shahid Ali Khan’s family returned their home. Confirming this to The News, Umm-e-Akbar – the mother of Sabeeha Shahid said that in the night she had received a telephone call of her grandson Farooq, who was among the detainees, and he told her that all of them had returned home and were fine. But, according to Umm-e-Akbar, Farooq advised her not to contact or meet the family members for the time being.
When asked about any maltreatment to any detainee during custody, she said that Farooq did not tell her any other thing except the news of family return. Meanwhile, police sources said the family was released, as the authorities did not want to politicise the issue.
Meanwhile, the central leader of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal and deputy chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Prof Ghafoor Ahmed has said the raid and arrest of family of JI leader Sabeeha Shahid has proved that the Quaid’s city was also under control of FBI.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, he demanded of the government to immediately release the family members. He threatened a massive protest if the innocent people were not freed. Prof Ghafoor asked the government to produce those two men whom they called foreigners before a court of law to give them a fair chance to clarify their position.