KARACHI, 27 October — The authorities reportedly handed over an Arab student to the United States wanted for links with suspected terrorist groups. The man taken to the airport early this week was immediately flown out, the newspaper The News reported yesterday.
Contrary to speculation that the man was one of the Arabs arrested recently at Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, the newspaper said he was more probably an Arab student at Karachi University who had been missing since early October.
Jamil Qasim Saeed Muhammad, the missing student, hailed from Taiz, Yemen, and was studying microbiology at the university. Just before he went missing, the federal Interior Ministry had called for all the information the university had about him, according to The News.
A Falcon aircraft of the US Air Force picked up Jamil Qasim at Karachi airport on Monday-Tuesday night. US troops who took custody of the man wore masks, as did a trooper who made a video film of the whole drama, the newspaper said.
According to the newspaper’s sources, the Falcon aircraft, bearing registration No. N-379 P, came from and returned to Amman, Jordan.
A private firm at the Karachi airport, Chemic Aviation, provided airport services to the US aircraft. No one in the Civil Aviation Authority and Airport Security Force knew the details of the operation. It was a secret one, sources said.
Authorities near the Balochistan capital of Quetta also arrested two Arab nationals on Thursday who were taken to Islamabad for questioning by the military intelligence. They, too, have either been handed over to the Americans or are likely to be passed on soon.
