The Hindu : Al-Zawahiri's son arrested during raid?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 26, 2004

International

International

Al-Zawahiri's son arrested during raid?

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, FEB. 25. Pakistan today declined to confirm or contradict reports in a section of the local press that a son of Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, was among the 20 odd suspected foreign militants picked up by the security forces in a raid on one of the tribal areas along the Afghanistan border.

The Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman, Masood Khan, told a weekly news briefing that concerned authorities were questioning those arrested in the operation and their identities would be known only after interrogation.

However, he was not prepared to deny reports about the capture of Zawahiri's son.

The Urdu daily, Jang, in a report published today has claimed that Khalid al-Zawahiri was handed over to U.S. custody soon after his arrest and flown out of Pakistan.

Asked whether Osama would be handed over to the U.S. if he surrendered voluntarily, Mr. Khan said the question was hypothetical.

The spokesman maintained that a section of the press has quoted the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, as having said that Osama would be handed over to America.

Pakistan has been emphasising in the last three days that the latest operation in the tribal areas was aimed at capturing Osama.

Several functionaries of the Government have insisted that the operation was conducted on a tip-off and aimed at capturing foreigners staying in the tribal areas illegally.

The spokesman was not willing to say whether all the foreign militants in the tribal area were captured, with the latest operation.

Mr. Khan said the operation was over "for the time being" and it could not be said with surety whether there were no more militants in the area.

If the report on the arrest of al-Zawahiri's son was correct, it assumes significance as the number two in the Al-Qaeda network has threatened new attacks against the U.S. in a recording attributed to him by the Al-Jazeera television station on Tuesday.

The latest operation in the tribal area came after the locals and militants ignored a February 20 deadline to surrender.

Last week, the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, had said that if the militants surrendered voluntarily, they would not be handed over to the U.S.

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