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Pak. to declare Al-Qaeda a terrorist organisation

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD MARCH 31. Pakistan has decided to legally declare the Al-Qaeda network as a terrorist organisation to help prosecute suspected supporters of the group.

``We are in the process of declaring Al-Qaeda a terrorist organisation,'' the Pakistan Interior Minister, Faisal Saleh Hayyat, announced at a news conference here today.

It is ironical that the Al-Qaeda is not an unlawful organisation considering the fact that Pakistan has been the focus of the hunt for the operatives of the outfit by the U.S.-led coalition. Pakistan's explanation is that it did not deem it necessary to outlaw the Al-Qaeda, as it is not an indigenous outfit.

In the last year and a half, Pakistan has handed over 480 Al-Qaeda suspects. The idea behind declaring it a terror outfit is to ensure that those caught do not escape punishment from courts.

Mr. Hayat made the announcement at a briefing on his return from talks in France, Algeria and Egypt on cooperation on security.

He said France had agreed to train Pakistani agents, and all three countries agreed to share intelligence with Pakistan to strengthen the anti-terrorist alliance. Pakistan has signed an agreement in Algiers to extradite a few Algerians suspected of having links with Al-Qaeda.

In a related development a Pakistani woman, who was on the FBI's list of suspected links to the Al-Qaeda terror network, has been detained by intelligence agencies in Karachi.

Aafia Siddiqui, a Ph.D. in neurological science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was picked up two days ago from a house of her relatives in Karachi hours after she returned from a trip abroad.

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