TIMES ONLINE: The FBI is investigating five American Muslim students who are thought to have been arrested in Pakistan yesterday on suspicion of plotting terrorist attacks after disappearing from their homes in the US last month.
Pakistani police said they arrested the five men, aged from 18 to their early 20s, in a raid on the house of a member of the banned militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, in the town of Sargodha in the eastern province of Punjab.
The FBI has yet to confirm their nationalities or identities, but Pakistani officials said the men were all US citizens, including three of Pakistani descent, one of Egyptian descent and one of Yemeni descent, and had been staying at the house since November 30.
Their arrest came as David C. Headley, another American citizen, of Pakistani origin, pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges in a case that has raised fears about Islamic militant groups' ability to recruit and operate inside the United States.
Muslim leaders in Washington said the five men - all students - had been living with their families in northern Virginia until they disappeared last month, and one had left behind a jihad-style "farewell" video message.
Officials from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) told reporters that the men's families contacted the organisation after they went missing.
Nihad Awad, CAIR's executive director, declined to give the men’s names, ages or nationalities, but one of them has been identified as a dental student at Howard University in Washington.
Mr Awad said the families brought along a video that included war images, verses from the Koran and showed one of the five men delivering a "final statement".
"It's like a farewell," he said of the 11-minute, English-language video that one of the families reportedly found in their home. Five US Muslims arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of terror plots >>> Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent | Thursday, December 10, 2009
