Author: Masood Anwar
Publication: The News
Date: October 25, 2001
KARACHI - Pakistani authorities
handed over a 'suspected foreigner' to the US authorities in a mysterious
way in the early hours of Tuesday and there are strong suspicions that
he was an Arab student of the Karachi University, with connections to some
infamous wanted organisation. A Falcon aircraft owned by the US air force
landed at Karachi airport at around 1 am and was parked in a remote, dark
and isolated area at the old terminal, a source at the Karachi airport
disclosed told The News.
The aircraft having registration
numbers N-379 P arrived from Amman and departed at 2.40 am for the same
destination, he said. "I cannot tell you about the nationality and identification
of the person handed over to the US men. The entire operation was so mysterious
that all persons involved in the operation, including US troops, were wearing
masks," he said. A masked US trooper was also making a video film of the
entire operation.
A private service company at the
Karachi airport, Chemic Aviation, provided the airport services to the
US aircraft. The 'wanted person' handed over to the US forces was not a
Pakistani national as the man was addressed as a deportee. No one in the
Civil Aviation Authority and Airport Security Force knew the details of
the operation. Everything was kept in secret and operated by an agency,
sources said.
It is the first time that Pakistani
authorities have handed over any 'wanted person' to the US authorities
at Karachi airport. There was some speculation that the person extradited
may have been one of the Arabs arrested recently at Chaman at the Pak-Afghan
border. But sources said there was no point in bringing him over to Karachi
and to send him through Karachi Airport.
The most likely possibility is that
an Arab student of Microbiology Department of Karachi University, who has
been missing since the start of October, could be the man deported. Jamil
Qasim Saeed Mohammad belonged to Taiz, a city of Yemen. He came to Karachi
in 1993 from Sana'a. Just before he went missing, Interior Ministry had
asked the University administration to send all the information about him.
His connections with any terrorist organisation or if and why he was deported,
could not be confirmed from official sources.
