Abbottabad, Pakistan:
Abdul Hameed in Northwest Pakistan's hill town of Abottabad would have never imagined that his act of kindness, of giving a foreign couple food and shelter for a few days would blow up in his face.
He had come across a foreign couple, cold and shivering in the street, and could he give them food and shelter for a few days?
Hameed had spare rooms on the second-floor that he occasionally let out since his older children had left home.
He said he was not keen on having them in the beginning, but his wife and son urged him to let the couple stay and to give them food and some medicine on a humanitarian basis.
"Then I said OK, give them one corner in any room,'" said the retired accountant.
The couple were mysterious, never leaving their room upstairs, Hameed said, not even to go to the house's sheltered courtyard with its views over pine-clad hills.
Hameed's youngest daughter left the guests a tray of food three times a day only to return to find it barely touched, he said.
Around nine days later, the identity of the male guest became clear, when a squad of heavily armed Pakistani intelligence agents raided the home.
"Keep quiet and your hands up", they told Hameed and his family as they went room to room and then up the stairs.
Two shots rang out, and minutes later they hauled the man, bleeding, out the building.
The run of good luck had ended for Umar Patek, an al-Qaida-linked Indonesian militant who for 10 years had been on the run from a 1 million US dollar bounty on his head, for allegedly helping build the bombs used in the 2002 bombings of nightclubs in Bali that killed 202 people.
Pakistani officials had kept Patek's detention on January 25 secret until two weeks ago, when the Associated Press first revealed word of it.
The details highlight how Pakistan continues to be a draw for Islamic militants from around the world despite the risks of travelling here.
His case also illustrates the durability of the wide-ranging international connections among militants.
Patek had intended to travel along with two French militants to North Waziristan, the Afghan border region where al-Qaida's top command is based, according to a Pakistani intelligence official briefed on the 40-hour operation.
The two French militants were also arrested, separately from Patek, the official said.
Patek, who trained with al-Qaida in Pakistan before the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, was able to remain plugged into transnational militant networks despite being one of the world's most wanted militants.
Hameed said Patek was injured when he was brought down from the upstairs room, but the seriousness of his injuries has not been revealed.
There were two bullet holes in the room, one in the window and one in the ceiling.
But Hameed said there was considerable blood in the room's en-suite bathroom and outside the door. Pakistani officials have not said whether Patek was armed.
Questions also remain over his fate, and there are signs he may be caught up in tensions between Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency and the CIA, which have previously cooperated during arrests of militants and would like access to him.
He had come across a foreign couple, cold and shivering in the street, and could he give them food and shelter for a few days?
Hameed had spare rooms on the second-floor that he occasionally let out since his older children had left home.
He said he was not keen on having them in the beginning, but his wife and son urged him to let the couple stay and to give them food and some medicine on a humanitarian basis.
"Then I said OK, give them one corner in any room,'" said the retired accountant.
The couple were mysterious, never leaving their room upstairs, Hameed said, not even to go to the house's sheltered courtyard with its views over pine-clad hills.
Hameed's youngest daughter left the guests a tray of food three times a day only to return to find it barely touched, he said.
Around nine days later, the identity of the male guest became clear, when a squad of heavily armed Pakistani intelligence agents raided the home.
"Keep quiet and your hands up", they told Hameed and his family as they went room to room and then up the stairs.
Two shots rang out, and minutes later they hauled the man, bleeding, out the building.
The run of good luck had ended for Umar Patek, an al-Qaida-linked Indonesian militant who for 10 years had been on the run from a 1 million US dollar bounty on his head, for allegedly helping build the bombs used in the 2002 bombings of nightclubs in Bali that killed 202 people.
Pakistani officials had kept Patek's detention on January 25 secret until two weeks ago, when the Associated Press first revealed word of it.
The details highlight how Pakistan continues to be a draw for Islamic militants from around the world despite the risks of travelling here.
His case also illustrates the durability of the wide-ranging international connections among militants.
Patek had intended to travel along with two French militants to North Waziristan, the Afghan border region where al-Qaida's top command is based, according to a Pakistani intelligence official briefed on the 40-hour operation.
The two French militants were also arrested, separately from Patek, the official said.
Patek, who trained with al-Qaida in Pakistan before the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, was able to remain plugged into transnational militant networks despite being one of the world's most wanted militants.
Hameed said Patek was injured when he was brought down from the upstairs room, but the seriousness of his injuries has not been revealed.
There were two bullet holes in the room, one in the window and one in the ceiling.
But Hameed said there was considerable blood in the room's en-suite bathroom and outside the door. Pakistani officials have not said whether Patek was armed.
Questions also remain over his fate, and there are signs he may be caught up in tensions between Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency and the CIA, which have previously cooperated during arrests of militants and would like access to him.
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