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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (46749)	7/29/2004 6:24:30 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Respond to of 50167

'Duo nabbed in Pakistan were South Africans' July 29 2004 at 05:48PM Johannesburg - Two of the men arrested for suspected terrorist activities in Pakistan at the weekend were in fact South African, the South African foreign affairs department confirmed on Thursday. Deputy South African Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad met Pakistani High Commissioner Akbar Zeb in Pretoria on Thursday to request access to the men, said departmental spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa. Pahad also asked for details of the arrests "to enable the South African government to determine the course of action to be followed". Mamoepa said the high commissioner committed his government to assisting South Africa and to facilitating consular visits to the detained men. These diplomatic negotiations follow three days of speculation as to the identity and nationality of the two men, after Pakistani newspapers published their names on Monday. They are said to be Feroze Ganchi, a doctor from Fordsburg, Johannesburg, and 20-year-old student Zubair Ismael, from Laudium, Pretoria. The two went missing 10 days ago while they were supposed to be hiking in the mountains in eastern Pakistan. According to South African newspaper reports the families of both men were outraged at the idea that they were terrorists, and denied it. Instead they speculated that their passports might have been stolen. The two arrested men were among 13 others detained after a 15 hour shootout in Gujrat, south east of Islamabad on the weekend. Since the arrests, six more al-Qaeda suspects have been arrested, and 64 policemen suspended for negligence of duty in allowing the terrorist group to rent a house in the region, the Daily Times newspaper in Pakistan reported on Thursday. Asked whether these were the first South Africans to be arrested for links to al-Qaeda, Selby Bokaba, spokesperson for the national police commissioner was not able to comment. He was also not able to speak about what happened to suspected terrorists reportedly arrested in South Africa before the elections in April. "This information was not supposed to reach the media," he told Sapa. - Sapa This article was originally published on July 29, 2004