US wants access to five Americans held in Pak

The United States has sought consular access to five American nationals, who were recently arrested in Sargodha in Pakistan's Punjab province on suspicion of links with terrorist groups, the state department said on Wednesday.

"I believe that they've been transferred to a new facility in Lahore. That just happened a day or two ago, and because they have been transferred to a new facility, we have asked for consular access to see them in the new facility," the State Department spokesman, Ian Kelly, told reporters at his daily news conference.

Pakistani authorities have registered a case under the tough Anti-Terrorism Act against the five US nationals who were detained in Pakistan last week after they went missing from their homes in Virginia.

They and obtained physical remand of the suspects. Soon after their remand was obtained, they were escorted to Chuhng Police Training Centre in Lahore.

However, the state department spokesman refrained from answering other questions related to the arrest of these five US nationals, which according to news reports quoting Pakistani officials, were radical and had gone to Pakistan to join extremist organization there to fight against US forces in Afghanistan.

"To the best of my knowledge, we have no objections to the way that they've been treated," Kelly said in response to a question.