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| Sunday, 5 September 2004 |
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Pakistan won't hand foreign militants to US: minister ISLAMABAD, Sept 4 (AFP) Pakistan on Friday urged foreign militants on its soil to surrender, assuring them they will not be handed over to the United States. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said there would be no let-up in the hunt for Al-Qaeda members, which has already netted hundreds of suspects, under new Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. "The foreign terrorists must surrender and we give them surety that we will not hand over them to anyone," Rashid, who was re-named to the information portfolio in Aziz' new 32-member cabinet on Thursday, told a press conference. "The policies against terrorism will continue... for the progress of this country, peace and our commitments with the international community." Pakistan is a pivotal US ally in the war on terrorism, and has captured some 600 Al-Qaeda suspects since their former Taliban hosts were toppled in neighbouring Afghanistan under a US-led offensive in late 2001. The majority of those captured have been handed over to the United States without trial or extradition. Pakistan has deployed 100,000 troops along its porous border with Afghanistan to flush out fugitive Islamic militants. Army operations this year have destroyed several Al-Qaeda training camps and hideouts in sympathetic tribal areas. A fresh crackdown since mid-July has netted more than 70 Al-Qaeda suspects, including key operatives Ahmad Khalfan Ghailani of Tanzania and senior Al-Qaeda computer expert Naeem Noor Khan of Pakistan. Rashid said none of the recent captives had been handed over to other ountries. The government meanwhile had ordered religious schools to expel all foreign students who do not have valid visas, Rashid said. Police raided Islamabad's Lal (Red) Mosque and its adjoining seminary last month to arrest clerics suspected of plotting to blow up government and military headquarters as well as the US embassy in Islamabad on August 14 Independence Day. A dozen Pakistani and foreign militants, including an Al-Qaeda-linked Egyptian who masterminded the alleged thwarted plot, were arrested between August 11 and 15. |
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