Pak hands over suspects to Saudi

NEW DELHI: Pakistan, which has continued to dilly dally over India's request to expedite the Mumbai attack investigations and take action against

Lashkar founder Hafiz Saeed, has not hesitated in responding to a request by Saudi Arabia to track down and hand over the two sons of top Yemeni Al Qaeda leader Alawi, who are accused of planning the suicide attack on Saudi deputy interior minister Prince Mohammad bin Nayef in Jeddah last month.

Revealing that Islamabad can move fast in terror investigations when it wants to, Pakistani intelligence agencies followed the leads and arrested the two sons Ali and Siddique in less than a month from a sanctuary in tribal areas where they were hiding, a Dawn newspaper report said. The two sons were operating in Pakistan���s tribal areas managing and supervising terror attacks, the report said.

This is in contrast to Pakistan���s slow progress in the Mumbai terror attack case where investigations have continued to progress at a slow pace and action against the perpetrators is nowhere in sight.

Saudi Arabia, according to the report, shared intelligence about Alawi's son during Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik's visit to Jeddah early in September and asked Pakistan to trace and arrest Ali and Siddique who
are allegedly the top planners of the suicide attacks. In less than a month, the Pakistani intelligence agencies handed over the two Alawi sons to Saudi Arabia.

What is even more significant is that Pakistan waived its law to hand over the two terrorists to Saudi authorities as the two countries do not have an extradition treaty.

"Although there is no extradition treaty with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan handed over the two foreign militants bypassing its law to oblige the Saudi authorities," the Dawn report said.

The Pakistani action is a contrast to Islamabad���s handling of the Mumbai terror attack investigations which have also lacked any transparency. Islamabad has also refused to hand over the Mumbai suspects to India saying that they would be subject to Pakistani laws. In fact Islamabad has also refused to allow the FBI access to the Mumbai terror attack suspects, including LeT top operatives Zarar Shah and Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi.

But in the case of Saudi Arabia, the two terrorists were brought to Islamabad and, after a brief interrogation, were sent to Saudi Arabia escorted by security officials, the Dawn report said.

Prince Nayef announced the release of a five-member Pakistani family who were arrested on the charge of smuggling drugs into Saudi Arabia in what is largely being seen as a quid pro quo for the arrest of the two terrorists. Prince Nayef was injured in the attack when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Ramzan gathering.