Pak court dismisses al-Qaeda suspect's plea

LAHORE: A Pakistani court on Monday dismissed appeals for the release of a medical doctor detained on suspicion of harbouring al-Qaeda members, but ordered the release of his naturalised American sons and Canadian nephew.
Judge Mohammad Javed Bhuttar of the high court in the eastern city of Lahore said he would give reasons for dismissing the appeals filed on behalf of the doctor, Ahmed Javed Khawaja, and his brother later.
However he ordered the release of Khawaja''s sons and nephew on the grounds that there was no case against them.
But Pervez Inayat Malick, a lawyer for the detainees, said police had declined to free the three, saying they were being held under the Maintenance of Public Order Act -- a law that empowers authorities to detain a person without charge for 90 days.
The 65-year-old Khawaja was arrested with his relatives in December on suspicion of assisting some of al Qaeda''s most wanted members.
The Pakistani government say they included Abu Yasir Al-Jazari, an Algerian Moroccan dual-national responsible for al Qaeda business and Abu Faraj, head of al Qaeda''s North Africa network and a deputy to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
Mohammed is considered a key planner of the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001.
Pakistani security forces and agents of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation have been hunting al Qaeda members who are believed to have slipped across the porous border with Afghanistan after the overthrow of the Taliban in late 2001.
Pakistan says it has arrested more than 400 suspected Islamic militants, including some key al Qaeda operatives, since the start of the U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan.