February 8, 2002	Friday	Ziqa’ad 24, 1422

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RIYADH, Feb 7: Over 30 Saudis are still missing in Afghanistan, unaccounted as yet, the Saudi ambassador in Pakistan Ali Bin Awad Asiri told the local Saudi daily Al-Jazirah.

Speaking on phone from Islamabad the Saudi envoy in Islamabad said that so far he has received reports from 34 Saudi families complaining that their sons were missing in Afghanistan. He added that nobody could tell, for certain, if these missing Saudis were dead or alive.

The Saudi interior minister has categorically said there was no evidence of Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network operations in Saudi Arabia. He promised to take tough action against any Al Qaeda member found active in the Kingdom.

The Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif also acknowledged for the first time publicly that 15 of the 19 hijackers involved in the Sept 11 attacks were Saudis. The Saudi authorities until recently have been questioning the reports that 15 of the hijackers were Saudis despite the US insistence to it.

The Saudi ambassador in Islamabad during the course of his telephonic interview with daily Al-Jazirah described the security situation in Pakistan as “extremely excellent”. He added there are Saudi students, journalists, and relief employees’ from the Red Crescent besides government officials on Hajj related assignments in Pakistan.

Asiri further clarified that the Saudi embassy has no information about any Saudi national detained in Pakistan. He said the Pakistani interior minister has categorically denied the presence of any Saudi in Pakistani jails.

He added that the Saudi embassy in Islamabad was now giving greater attention to the issue of missing Saudis in Afghanistan. He said several embassy officials have been assigned the task of listing the missing Saudis.

They have also been made responsible for answering the enquiries of the parents and relatives of the missing people through phones and fax.

He said many of these (missing) people do not carry any identification papers and most of them have changed their names, making the job of their identification almost impossible. Even the security authorities in Afghanistan refer to these people only as “Arab Afghans” as nobody is able to distinguish among the Saudis, the Egyptians, the Yemenis and the Algerians.

“Naturally some Saudi nationals are still alive in Afghanistan and we are now working hard to locate and find out their current situation,” he clarified.

The ambassador added that arrangements are also under way at the Saudi embassy in Islamabad to receive Hajj applications from 15,000 Afghan pilgrims. “We are in constant touch with the Afghan Hajj minister for the purpose of coordination in this regard,” the Saudi envoy added.

ACCOUNTS FROZEN: Saudi Arabia has frozen four bank accounts suspected of financing terrorism, the kingdom’s central bank said on Thursday while denying reports that it has been monitoring accounts in all commercial banks, AFP adds.