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Behroz Khan in Peshawar
Pakistani authorities are investigating a British journalist of Indian origin along with his two local helpers for illegal exit and entry into the country from Afghanistan.
"Amardeep Basi has been arrested under the Foreign Act. The British national produced his press card, which shows his affiliation to a weekly magazine called Sunday Mercury, but failed to register his name at Torkham checkpoint," said Rahim Gul, an officer at the Pak-Afghan border.
He said Basi arrived in Pakistan a few days back and acquired visas for Pakistan and Afghanistan, but did not report at the border check post while leaving for Kabul and did the same on his return to Pakistan.
"This created suspicions which led to his arrest at Torkham on Friday," Gul said adding that Basi dressed like local Pushtuns and had also grown a beard to dodge the border guards. "His origin is from Jalandhar, India, but he is holding a British passport No-0496213," Gul said.
Basi, 1971 born, also failed to get the special travelling permit required to pass through the tribal areas of Pakistan on the way to Afghanistan, the official said. "A wrist watch camera used for secret photos and a miniature tape recorder plus some photos of religious personalities and building of madarasas (religious schools) have been recovered from him," Gul said.
"I was dressed like locals and had to dodge the authorities because I wanted to see things from close angle," Rahim Gul quoted Amardeep Basi as saying.
His two local helpers, Naoshad Ali Afridi and Khitab Shah Shinwari are also being interrogated.
"His interest in Afghanistan seems to be about religious people," an officer from the interrogation team told rediff.com.
"He was arrested at Torkham on suspicion because he (Basi) could hardly speak any other language than English," a border security guard said.
Pakistan has arrested several foreign journalists in the tribal areas for travelling without proper documents in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
However, all of them were later released. Taliban authorities also arrested British, Japanese and French journalists during the US bombing campaign in Afghanistan for entering the country without valid visas. The ousted students militia had imposed a ban on issuing visas to foreign journalists during the US bombing campaign.
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