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Six Pakistanis under suspicion in Egypt terror attacks

Egyptian police investigators said Monday that they were searching for six Pakistani men, as the probe into the weekend`s terrorist attack at the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el Sheikh widened. Police are circulating photographs of the six, who have apparently been missing since before the attacks at checkpoints in and around the southern Sinai Peninsula city. An Associated Press correspondent who saw the images said the men appeared to be between the ages of 20 and 30.

The involvement of Pakistanis in the attack in Sharm el-Sheik would be unprecedented, as non-Egyptians have rarely been linked to attacks here. It would also be extremely difficult for a group of young Pakistanis not to be noticed in Sharm, one of the heaviest policed cities in Egypt and a favorite place of residence for President Hosni Mubarak.

Pakistani officials had no immediate comment on the course of the investigation in Egypt. Two rival claims of responsibility have emerged for the Sharm bombings, but neither statement could be authenticated. One was by the "Abdullah Azzam Brigades of al-Qaida in Syria and Egypt", which also claimed responsibility for October terrorist bombings in the Red Sea resort town of Taba, not far from the Egyptian border with Israel. The other was made by the previously unknown group Holy Warriors of Egypt.