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UAE hands over terror suspect to Pakistani officials

A Jihadi leader linked to Osama bin Laden and twin assassination attempts on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has been extradited to Pakistan by United Arab Emirates authorities, a key cabinet minister said yesterday.

"Yes, we confirm that Qari Saifullah Akhtar has been handed over to us by UAE authorities," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said.

He [Akhtar] is being questioned by Pakistani investigators, Rashid said.

"He was wanted in terrorism cases."

Akhtar was wanted in connection with two attempts to kill Musharraf in December last year and was arrested in Dubai last week, Pakistan intelligence sources said early yesterday.

Akhtar, who is the head Pakistan's top Taliban ally Harkat Jihad-e-Islami, spent most of his time living in Afghanistan where he met bin Laden several times before the hardline regime was ousted in late 2001.

Rashid said Akhtar's arrest was not linked to the July arrests of key al-Qaeda suspects Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani and computer engineer Naeem Noor Khan.

The arrests of Khan and Ghailani, the Tanzanian suspect in the 1998 US embassy bombings in east Africa, led to the capture of senior al-Qaeda operatives in Britain and a recent high alert in the US for possible terror attacks.

"He [Akhtar] was more active in Afghanistan and his arrest is yet another major success of Pakistan in the international war against terrorism," Rashid said.

"His arrest may lead to the arrest of other members of his group."

One of Harkat Jihad-e-Islami's key operatives, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, was convicted and sentenced to death for plotting the abduction and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in early 2002.

Intelligence officials have said another top Jihadi leader, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, who is also linked to bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, was in Pakistani custody and being interrogated after being arrested two months ago.

The officials said "he was closely linked to Mullah Mo-hammed Omar," the one-eyed fugitive Taliban leader who has been on the run from US-led coalition forces since September 2001.
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