Pakistani ex-senator's ties to AQ nuclear quest

FBI will check Paracha’s private lockers

KARACHI: A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team is arriving in Pakistan in the second week of June to collect “evidence” about the alleged role of a Pakistani businessman and a former senator, Saifullah Paracha, in nuclear proliferation, sources in the Ministry of Interior told the Daily Times on Thursday. Mr Paracha - now lodged at a US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay - was charged by the investigators two months ago with providing information to Al Qaeda that could have helped them obtain nuclear weapons. Sources said the FBI team would check some of Mr Paracha and his family’s lockers at a private lockers facility in Old Clifton in Karachi. An Interior Ministry official who asked not to be named, told the Daily Times that the Paracha family maintained lockers at the lockers facility of famous money changer Khanani & Kalia in Clifton. The allegation, contained in documents filed two months ago in a US court, also identifies Paracha as a participant in a conspiracy to smuggle explosives into the US and help Al Qaeda hide money. maqbool ahmed