Arrested US national being grilled: officials

PESHAWAR (The News): Security officials interrogating the detained American national revealed on Tuesday that they were suspicious about his activities and purpose of travel to the remote peaceful and scenic Chitral district.

The US national, Gary Brooks Faulkner, went to Chitral on a tourist visa and then disappeared from his hotel room in Kalash valley of Bamburet.During initial investigation, the US national reportedly told the interrogators that he had planned to cross over into the troubled Nuristan province of neighbouring Afghanistan and “encourage Nato forces in their fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban.”

However, police officials in Chitral said the bearded US national had told them he wanted to travel to Nuristan and kill Osama bin Laden and his two senior aides, whom, he believed, were hiding there.

Security officials said it was not a simple arrest, saying, currently they were investigating as to why the US national had chosen to visit the remote Chitral district and then to travel to the Kalash valley, which was located near the border with Afghanistan’s Taliban-dominated Nuristan province.

“He does not seem to be a tourist at all. He had planned many things to do during his visit of Chitral. Personally, I think he was sent on a special mission,” remarked a senior security official, wishing not to be named.

He was still in custody of security agencies and had reportedly been shifted to Peshawar for further investigation.Malik Naveed Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief, said the US national had come on a tourist visa and had even got himself registered with district police officer or DPO in Chitral, soon after reaching there.

Talking to The News by telephone, the police chief said the US national wanted to go to Kalash valley, near the border with Nuristan, for which the Chitral police provided him a constable for his protection.

He and the police constable were staying at a hotel in Bamburet from where the US national disappeared mysteriously.The police constable immediately informed his bosses in Chitral city who sent a police contingent to search for him.

The police after 14 hours of hectic search operation recovered the missing foreigner from the forests-covered mountains in Sheikhanandeh and was brought back to Chitral city.He said a Chinese-made pistol, three magazines of cartridges, a dagger, sword and night vision binocular, had been recovered from his possession.

It is the same route from where the Taliban had shifted the Greek national Athuanasis into Afghanistan after kidnapping him from Bamburet in September 9, 2009.The Greek national was released by the Taliban after spending several months in custody.