New Zealander detained by Pak security forces in Peshawar

Peshawar, Feb.11 (ANI): Pakistani security forces detained a New Zealander on Wednesday who was trying to enter the South Waziristan region, an al Qaeda and Taliban militant stronghold on the Afghan border, officials said.

The man, identified as a 35-year-old New Zealander with a European-sounding name, was detained at a paramilitary checkpost on the outskirts of Tank town, about 280 km southwest of Islamabad, which is the gateway to South Waziristan, the Dawn reported.

'He was travelling in a passenger van. He has a beard and was wearing a shalwar kamiz as a disguise,' the top government administrator in Tank, Barkatullah Khan, told a foreign news agency.

He told the soldiers who detained him that he was going to South Waziristan to get married, Khan said.

Intelligence officials who declined to be identified said they suspected he might have links with Islamist militants. (ANI)