Many Pakistani militants killed

Security agencies in Pakistan, keeping a close watch on developments in Afghanistan, has confirmed that some of the country's most wanted militants, including Riaz Basra, have either been killed or are trapped in the Afghan city of Kunduz along with the Taliban.

These agencies believe that at least 8,000 members of the militant Lashkar-e-Jhangavi organisation, which had allegedly been involved in sectarian killings in Pakistan, were operating from Afghanistan.

They have now been trapped in Kandahar or Kunduz. But these agencies have no sympathy for these militants, said a source here.

Senior intelligence officials in the NWFP have said that interrogation with one of the wanted men, who was arrested while returning to Pakistan near Torkham border recently, has revealed that at least two dozen militants associated with the banned extremist party Lashkar-e-Jhangavi have either been killed in Mazar-i-Sharif or were completely trapped in Kunduz till last week, said The News in a report.

Officials suspect that Pakistanís most wanted man Riaz Basra, the head of Lashkar-e-Jhangavi, is also one of the militants now trapped in Afghanistan.

The government of Pakistan has offered head money of up to Rs10 million for any information on Basra or on any of his two dozen most wanted associates.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf had banned Lashkar-e-Jhangavi and Sipah-e-Mohammad organisations on August 14 this year.

Pakistani intelligence agencies estimate that roughly 8,000 Pakistani extremists, mostly from the tribal areas of the NWFP, are presently facing death either in the prison camps of Northern Alliance or in the besieged city of Kandahar.

Officials said that some 2,000 families have reported their male members missing in the NWFP and Balochistan in the last one month alone.