Pakistans release of al-Qaeda suspect upsets US and UK

Pakistans decision to release a suspect al-Qaida expert accused of training suicide bombers and plotting to attack Heathrow airport has dismayed authorities in both London and Washington.

London, Aug.23 : Pakistan's decision to release a suspect al-Qaida expert accused of training suicide bombers and plotting to attack Heathrow airport has dismayed authorities in both London and Washington.

Officials in both capitals described the release of 28-year-old Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan as "disappointing, strange and baffling, and added that they saw the Pakistani computer engineer as a "significant individual".

"I find it strange and baffling," The Guardian quoted Seth Jones, of the Rand Corporation, a Washington think tank, as saying.

"It is also deeply reprehensible since Khan was involved in training al-Qaida operatives. He presents a major threat to the West," he added.

One former intelligence official told the BBC that Mr Khan's story was a "murky tale" in which there were "no clear answers".

Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, 28, returned to his home in Karachi after three years' detention. Khan, believed to be living with his parents, and is subject to speculation that he was an al-Qaida double agent, or had been "turned" by the Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency.

But his release also comes amid unprecedented action by Pakistan's supreme court, which is pressing the government to locate hundreds of people detained without trial.

The media has been prevented from interviewing Khan, who remains under tight surveillance. han was alleged to have been the conduit for scrambled e-mail communications between the al-Qaida leaders in the tribal belt and the outside world.

A seized laptop contained a "treasure trove" of intelligence, officials said, describing blueprints of potential targets for al-Qaida, in Britain and the US, including photographs and plans of Heathrow airport and underpasses in London.

His arrest led British police and security service officers to Dhiren Barot, who was imprisoned last year for 40 years for planning a bombing campaign, including a plan to fill expensive cars with explosives and gas cylinders, park them in car parks beneath buildings and then detonate them.

It also led to the capture of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian who allegedly helped bomb American embassies in Africa in 1998.

Human rights activists, however, have questioned whether Khan was really a terrorist mastermind as was being portrayed.

"If he is so dangerous a suspect in the war on terror then why has he not been charged for the last three years?" said Ali Dayan Hasan, of Human Rights Watch.

ANI