ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Pakistani authorities have arrested two al Qaida suspects from a town bordering the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, officials said Wednesday.
"One of them -- Mohammed Talha -- is a Sudanese national and the other -- Qari Muhbiur Rehman -- is a Pakistani," a senior official at the Interior Ministry in Islamabad told United Press International.
Both were arrested from Quetta, a Pakistan town bordering the Afghan province of Kandahar, the headquarters of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime.
"Armed men in commando uniform barged into our house between the night of Monday and Tuesday at around 2:30 a.m. and took my brother and our Sudanese guest Talha with them," Rehman's sister, Bibi Saleha, told reporters in Quetta.
Before entering the house, the Pakistan army commandos cut off electricity and telephone connections, she said. Saleha said Talha and his wife took shelter in their home two weeks ago.
A local leader of the militant Lashkr-e-Toiba, Mohammed Qasim, had brought the two guests, she said, adding, "We don't know where they came from and why."
Saleha said her mother had accepted the guests on humanitarian grounds because both were sick and Qasim had told them that his guests had come from Peshawar and he planned to send them back to Peshawar in a few days.
"My brother has nothing to do with al Qaida or any other organization," she added.
Rehman is a local businessman who imports rice to Quetta from the Pakistani province of Punjab, she said.
