Pak arrests 5 US Muslims in raid linked to JeM

The six, who included a highways department employee, were on Wednesday arrested in a raid in a posh residential area of Sargodha in Punjab, from the home of a JeM leader.

Laptops, some CDs, ‘jehadi’ literature and maps of sensitive locations were seized from their possession during the raid, police sources said.

“Three foreigners, two Pakistanis with US nationality, identified as Omer Farooq and Waqar Hasan Khan, and a highways department employee named Fahim were arrested from Farooq’s house,” a police officer said. The officer said the arrested men had links to the JeM and were planning terror attacks.  The five Americans disappeared from their homes in Northern Virginia last month after leaving a farewell video in the ‘jihadist style’ showing conflicts between Western and Muslim nations and war footage.

While law enforcement officials said they had no evidence that the men had been trained in terror camps or were planning an attack, their arrest from a house linked to a radical jihadist group and the video with jihadist overtones lead the investigating agencies in that direction.