Saudis annoyed at safe passage to militants

Frontier Post
By IMTIAZ HUSSAIN
PESHAWAR - Scores of Arab militants, wanted by their respective governments on a whole slew of charges, have flown out of Pakistan via Peshawar airport, highly-placed sources told The Frontier Post here on Wednesday. The authorities concerned, in this regard, here have received a letter from Pakistan Embassy in Saudi Arabia asking for a halt to safe passage to suspected Arab militants on Afghan passports from Peshawar airport. The Peshawar airport immigration authorities have been asked to keep a vigil on such passengers. The letter said: "There are reports that most of the Arabs have left for Saudi Arabia from Peshawar airport," an officer at the Interior Ministry in Islamabad told this scribe wishing not to be named. Sources in Islamabad said that the Saudi government had lodged a complaint with the Pakistan Embassy to protest arrival of suspected Arab militants from the Peshawar airport.

The Saudi government found many Arab nationals came there on Afghan passports. "Most of them wanted by their respective governments on various charges," the Interior Ministry official said. The Interior Ministry, after receiving the letter from the Pakistan Embassy in Riyadh, had approached heads of various intelligence agencies to confirm whether or not the letter carried any weight. However, departed passengers' records revealed that several Arab passengers boarded Gulf-bound flights on Afghan passports from the Peshawar airport. It merits a mention here that ever-since the government prepared a list of terrorists, allegedly belonging of certain religious organisations, there were reports that most of them have left the country from the Peshawar airport. The Arab nationals with Afghan passports feel great comfort to flee the country in connivance with officials at the Peshawar Airport.

The sources disclosed that the Arab militants started leaving Afghanistan, mostly via the Peshawar airport, soon after the imposition of UN sanctions on Taliban for harbouring Osama bin Laden. The Arab militants, staying in Afghanistan for one reason or other, preferred to leave the war-ravaged country and to take refuge in Saudi Arabia following the UN curbs. Former Afghan presidents Prof. Burhanuddin Rabbani, Abdul Rab Rasool Sayyaf and Eng. Gulbudin Hikmatyar have issued passports to various nationals, including the Arab nationals, apart from their own nationals.