US paid 5 lakh dlrs to Pak to arrest terror suspect, reveal court papers

Washington, May 14 : Papers filed in a Canadian court last year disclosed that a US intelligence agency paid a bounty of 500,000 dollars to Pakistan military for the arrest of Abdullah Khadr, the Canadian son of a suspected Al Qaeda financier Ahmed Said Khadr.

This was revealed in a report published yesterday in Canadian daily The Globe and Mail.

According to the report, the papers filed in a Canadian court said that Abdullah Khadr was wanted by the Americans for "supporting insurgent activity in Pakistan and Afghanistan", and also that he was deemed to be a "national security threat" (to the US).

Khadr is the eldest son of Egyptian-born Canadian national Ahmed Said Khadr, and the brother of Omar Khadr, the only Canadian held at Guantanamo, said the report which was published after a legal battle against the Canadian Justice officials, who objected to the publication of the secret.

Abdullah was held in Pakistan for almost a year before returning in 2005 to Canada, where he was arrested and jailed, and is now fighting extradition to the US, added the report.

The federal court judge presiding over the proceedings said in his decision: "The fact that a foreign state paid a bounty for the apprehension of a Canadian citizen abroad and that Canadian officials were aware of it ... is a matter in which the public would have a legitimate interest. The evidence heard in camera supports the conclusion that the bounty was offered and paid by the United States."

Abdullah's lawyers maintained that their client was tortured while in Pakistan and his statements to US, Canadian and Pakistani agents are therefore tainted. Abdullah's attorney Nathan Whitling told the Globe and Mail that Washington was guilty of "outsourcing torture. Rather than getting its own hands dirty, the US simply paid the Musharraf regime the county to arrest Khadr, knowing full well what Pakistan would do to him. The US then did all it could to hide this secret arrangement from the Canadian judge hearing Khadr's case."

ANI