Posted on 12/10/2003 9:46:07 AM PST by knighthawk
ISLAMABAD : Pakistan on Wednesday handed over six Indonesian Islamic students held here on suspicion of terror links to a delegation from Jakarta for repatriation to their homeland, officials said.
The detainees includes Rusman Gunawan, the younger brother of alleged top terrorist Hambali, considered al-Qaeda's pointman in Asia and also former operations chief of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror group.
"The students have been handed over to the delegation," a senior government official said here. The official would not disclose when the Indonesian students would be flown out of Pakistan .
Foreign office spokesman Masood Khan confirmed the handover and said the Indonesian delegation, which arrived here on Sunday, had come with a formal request to take custody of the six detainees.
The Indonesians had been studying at the Abu Bakar Islamic University in the southern city of Karachi before their arrest in September.
Islamabad-based security officials said the students were part of "a sleeper cell" of the al-Qaeda-linked JI. JI is blamed for a string of attacks including the Bali blasts that killed 202 people in October 2002.
Hambali has been in US custody at a secret location since his arrest in Thailand on August 1.
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