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Four detained 'American Taliban' freed

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  • 05-06-2011 5:00am
    #1
    Brown Bomber
    Site Banned Posts: 8,331 ✭✭✭


    http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/05-Jun-2011/Four-detained-American-Taliban-freed/

    In yet another real-life drama, four foreigners bearded Taliban-style were detained by the police at a checkpoint near Gora Qabristan in Peshawar, reported a private news channel late on Saturday night.

    Despite their arrogance and apparent non-compliance, all four were allowed to drive away by the helpless police reportedly on a call from Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

    On being stopped, the foreigners rigidly refused to cooperate with the security agencies and open the windows of their land cruiser (numbered IDF 7582) or at least hold up their identity papers. Later they put on the dashboard a red diplomatic registration plate, claiming they were American diplomats heading towards the US embassy in Islamabad. But their stubbornness to stay in the locked vehiclefuelled suspicions of the security agencies converging on the site.

    The United States has long been accused of establishing a network of secret agents in Pakistan to run a parallel espionage network. Following deterioration of law and order in the country and the unilateral American ‘kill Osama’ raid in Abbottabad, the military brass decided recently to thin out the presence of American contractors in the country.

    Though the nationalities of the four foreigners were not verified at the time of going to press, reports said they were hulky foreigners bearded like the Taliban.TheTV channel said a chaotic situation emerged when law enforcers signalled a land cruiser to stop. The four foreigners inside refused to show identity papers or get off.

    After more than an hour, two of the foreigners told law enforcer that they were Americans. The TV said one of them was identified as Richard Scott,while the names of the others were not immediately revealed. Later, the rest also agreed to show their papers and passports to police. The security agencies scrambled to contact the US Peshawar consulate and Islamabad embassy, and the four were freed.

    Talking to the media after the release of the foreigners, SP Cantt Shafiullah said the identities of the four were confirmed with the US embassy and consulate. However, he said the police had their limitations on such cases.

    The episode may well spur a fresh debate on sovereignty as the arrogance with which the four Americans scoffed at the country’s security apparatusis quite symbolic and irritable to the people.

    Previously, the two countries had their ties touch the lowest point when CIA contractor Raymond Davis killed two Pakistanis in Lahore. Raymond was freed on account of unprecedented meddling by the US president bending over backwards to prove that the arrested man was a diplomat and enjoyed immunity.


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