US seeks custody of Omar, others for Indian plane hijack
NEW YORK- The United States law enforcement officials are seeking the extradition of several other suspects, besides Ahmed Omar Shaikh, who have been connected to the 1999 hijacking of the Indian airlines jet said the New York Times, quoting Pakistani officials.
Omar is the only Pakistani militant whose hand-over the United States has publicly sought since he was indicted in the United States it is seeking. But Pakistani law enforcement officials say American officials have also broached the subject of the possible extradition of several others believed to have been connected to the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines jet.
It was not clear, the Pakistani officials told the paper, whether any of those individuals has yet been indicted in the United States, a step that had to precede their hand-over. Pakistan wants to try Ahmed Omar Shaikh in Pakistan first before acceding to the American request for his extradition.
However, the Times said that there is another reason to delay handing over Omar. There is a concern that Omar might use his transfer to American custody to make statements – true or false – that would harm Pakistan’s security.
“He is a dangerous man,” a Pakistani police official told the paper. “He can spin yarns and cause confusion and he is clearly out to embarrass the Pakistan government.” Pakistani officials said the internal debate about the timing of Omar’s extradition had also focused in part on the need to pre-empt domestic criticism that might focus on questions of national sovereignty. In Washington, a senior Bush administration official said that “the status of things at this point is that we’re still in discussions.”
“They have not formally told us one way or the other what they’re going to do,” the official said. “The issue is they’ve got charges, we’ve got charges. The question is who should try him first,” the Times said. Pakistani officials said tonight that the interior ministry had argued in favour of complying immediately with the American request for Omar’s extradition, in keeping with Pakistan’s avowals of a campaign against terrorism.
By contrast, the Pakistani intelligence agencies and the foreign ministry maintained that to turn over Omar would leave the impression that Pakistan did not care about its sovereignty and strengthen the contention of militants that Pakistan had become a client state of the United States, the paper said.
Separately, the Pakistani authorities are acknowledging deep concern about a wave of sectarian violence that has killed more than a dozen people in the last week and is being described at the highest levels of Pakistan’s government as a sign of resistance to the promised crackdown against the militants.
Senior Pakistani government officials said tonight that they were planning a new set of measures against the militants. These would include freezing the assets of individuals, a step beyond those already aimed at outlawed organizations.
For the last few days, officials said, Omar has refused to accept food, apparently to extract concessions including a public promise that he would be tried in Pakistan. The officials said that the hunger strike had not played a role in deliberations about whether he should be handed over to the United States.
The White House has made clear that it wants Omar in American hands, and Gen Pervez Musharraf, told the American ambassador last week that he would not object to such a plan.
The requests to Pakistan for his extradition were made beginning in late November, after Omar was secretly indicted by an American grand jury for his role in the 1994 kidnapping of three Britons and an American in India. But in recent days, it has become clear that American officials are not inclined to push Pakistan on the timing of Omar’s hand-over.
Source: Dawn
Date:3/7/2002
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