Usman Anwar, police chief in Sargodha, where the men were arrested this month, said emails had revealed plans for the young men from Virginia to travel to a Pakistani nuclear power plant.
“We believe that they were supposed to be used inside Pakistan,” Anwar told Reuters by telephone.
“In their last email to the Taliban, we found they mentioned the Chashma Nuclear Plant and that’s why they were going to Mianwali (district).”
Anwar declined to give details because police were still interrogating the suspects.
The case has illustrated how easy it is for anyone to pursue dreams of joining militant jihad through cyber channels, a worrying reality for Pakistan, already struggling on the ground to contain a Taliban insurgency.
Washington is pressuring Pakistan to root out militants in lawless tribal areas who cross the border to attack Western forces in Afghanistan. But it is a sensitive issue.
Pilotless US drone aircraft attacks on suspected militants on Pakistani soil have already infuriated many Pakistanis.
A drone aicraft attacked a suspected militant target in northwest Pakistan yesterday, killing five people, intelligence officials said.
Two missiles hit a house in North Waziristan in the attack. Two people other people were wounded, the officials said.
The possibility of militants attempting to attack Pakistan’s nuclear weapons alarms Western powers, although analysts say it is highly unlikely.
