Lahore, Pakistan:
A Pakistani court formally approved the arrests of the five young American men from Virginia on Tuesday, according to Pakistani authorities, and allowed 10 more days for their questioning on suspicions that they had been seeking training to fight American troops in Afghanistan.
The five, all friends from the suburbs of Washington who had been reported missing, were detained Dec. 9 in a raid on a house belonging to an uncle of one of the five in the city of Sargodha, in the north of Punjab province. The order was issued by a civil judge in Sargodha. The five are being held in Lahore, the Punjabi capital, but were returned briefly to Sargodha for the ruling under tight security. The district police chief, Dr Usman Anwar Saif, said evidence was building that the five planned to take part in "jihad."
Sargodha, home to the central command of Pakistan's air force, is also known as a center for anti-India militant groups. It is a gateway to North Waziristan, a haven for al-Qaida in Pakistan.
A deputy police superintendent in Sargodha, Tahir Gujar, said the police were set to charge the five under anti-terrorism laws with planning a criminal conspiracy.
The police said that there were strong indications that the five met with representatives of two banned militant groups: Jaish-e-Muhammad and Jamaat-ud-Dawa.
Pakistani officials have said they arrived in Karachi, the nation's largest city, on Dec 1.