The Hindu : Pak. promised more help to fight terrorism

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 17, 2003

International

International

Pak. promised more help to fight terrorism

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD APRIL 16. The United States has promised to give an additional $40 million to help Pakistan in its effort to fight terrorism and strengthen border security.

The commitment was made at the second annual U.S.-Pakistan Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism and Law Enforcement earlier this week. The Group was established during the Pakistan President, Musharraf's official visit to Washington in February 2002.

A statement put out by the U.S. Embassy here said that U.S. Administration officials who participated in the meeting praised Pakistan's `strong and sustained' support on counter-terrorism matters and cited the arrest of suspected terrorists such as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

The group discussed ongoing and expanded efforts for further assistance to the Pakistan Government in the areas of border security, counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism, law enforcement reform, mutual legal assistance and related areas. Potential areas of regional cooperation, particularly with Afghanistan, were also discussed.

Ambassador J. Cofer Black, Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism, Paul Simons, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, and Bruce Swarts, U.S. Department of Justice Deputy Assistant Attorney-General, represented the U.S. side. Tasneem Noorani, Secretary in the Interior Ministry, led the Pakistani delegation. The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, Christina Rocca, delivered the opening remarks.

In the course of the meeting Pakistan is believed to have informed the U.S. that it would not extradite its nationals suspected of helping the Taliban or Al-Qaeda networks and instead would prefer to try them locally.

Mr. Noorani has been quoted in the Dawn as saying that even Omar Sheikh, the man accused of killing American journalist Daniel Pearl, would not be extradited. The British-born militant was convicted and sentenced to death on July 15 last.

The Interior Secretary said that the Americans were aware of "this principled stand'' and did not ask for the extradition of any terrorism suspect.

Mr. Noorani, however, acknowledged that the U.S. administration was seeking the extradition of some of people of Pakistani origin who had later taken other nationalities. They include a Boston-based woman, Aafia Siddiqui, who is now an American citizen and is believed to have escaped to Pakistan.

The 31-year-old Ms. Siddiqui is the first woman to be accused of having links with Al-Qaeda. She holds a Ph.D in neurological science and has studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ``We are looking for her but so far we have no information about her,'' said Mr. Noorani. He said people like her, who now are foreign nationals, could be extradited if caught. Besides terrorism suspects, he said, there are eight other people, all Pakistan nationals, who were on the U.S. extradition list. Most of them are accused of drug trafficking.

In the past, Pakistan has extradited such people to the U.S. after seeking judicial approval and Mr. Noorani said these suspects could also be sent if caught but their extradition would have to be approved by a

Pakistani court first. Islamabad had also handed over 347 Al-Qaeda suspects, mostly Arabs and Afghans.

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