Agencies  --  Arab News

ISLAMABAD, 11 April 2004 — The 14-year-old son of Ahmad Said Al-Kadr, an Egyptian-born Canadian citizen and alleged Al-Qaeda financier killed in a military operation last year, is bound for Canada after prolonged treatment in a Pakistani hospital, the government said yesterday.

Al-Kadr, on the US government’s list of most wanted Al-Qaeda leaders, was one of eight men killed in October 2003 when Pakistani troops launched an operation in Wana, the headquarters of the South Waziristan tribal region, after reports that Al-Qaeda fugitives were hiding there.

Al-Kadr’s son, Karim Kadr, who was injured in the same operation, was being treated in a hospital near the Pakistani capital Islamabad before his release, Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Rauf Chaudhry said.

Government officials said Kadr was heading to Canada after his release from the hospital. It was unclear, however, whether he was going of his own volition or was being deported by Pakistani authorities.

“He is a Canadian national and we have freed him from a hospital where he was receiving treatment after being injured,” Chaudhry told The Associated Press. “He should be on his way back home.”

It was not clear when the boy was freed, and Chaudhry declined to give further details.

However, another government official told The AP that Kadr had been deported.

“He has left for Canada,” the official said, on condition of anonymity. He would not elaborate.

Pakistan, which became a key ally of the United States in the war on terror after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, has so far arrested more than 500 suspected members of Al-Qaeda. Although many of them were handed over to the United States, some suspects were also deported to their home countries at the request of their governments.

South Waziristan is located in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, about 320 km (200 miles) west of the capital, and just across from Afghanistan.

Hunt Starts Today

Pakistan’s efforts to win support from border tribes in the hunt for the Al-Qaeda militants made headway yesterday as three more tribes announced they would deploy hundreds of armed tribesmen in the search. A spokesman for Ghanikhel, Darkhel and Jaykhel tribes told reporters a “lashkar” (tribal force) would start operations tomorrow in South Waziristan where the military carried out a massive operation last month.

The offensive was suspended after fierce fighting between troops and militants left around 124 people dead.

“We are sending a lashkar of hundreds of tribesmen into Azam Warzak area to search for and arrest foreigners and their local protectors,” tribal spokesman Malik Khadin said in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan. “We have suspicions that some foreigners are hiding in certain villages of Azam Warzak.”

Leaders of several other tribes have already joined hands with the government in an effort to purge the semi-autonomous region of foreign intruders and prevent use of military force by the government.

During the anti Al-Qaeda campaign many civilians have also been killed during clashes between troops and militants.

The government has given cash compensation for the victims. In the latest distribution of financial compensation, the authorities yesterday handed out 500,000-rupee ($8,771) checks to the families of each of the 13 civilians killed last month.