March 9, 2002	Saturday	Zilhaj 24, 1422

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NEW YORK, March 8: The US Justice Department is removing hundreds of Pakistani detainees from the United States at a “hectic” pace and officials have told the Pakistani government that most of those arrested immediately after the Sept 11 attacks will be returned home by the end of next month, a Pakistani official told the Washington Post on Thursday.

The official, Imran Ali, the Pakistani consular officer who oversees the detainee issue, said about 130 captives have been deported, released on bond or have agreed to return to Pakistan voluntarily in recent weeks.

He said all but about a dozen of the remaining “140 or 150” Pakistani detainees are to be freed now that US authorities have concluded that “absolutely none had links to 9/11.”

The steady departure of the Pakistanis appears to be the largest known release of detainees since the government launched its terror investigation after the attacks on New York and Washington. But it is impossible to be certain, because the government has detained and moved the captives in total secrecy.

At least one other embassy, Turkey, said Thursday that its cadre of detainees had dropped significantly in the past month, and immigration lawyers said they had also heard that detainees were being released at a faster pace.

The release of the Pakistanis follows the February visit to Washington of President Pervez Musharraf, who urged President Bush to expedite cleared detainees’ departures.

Justice Department officials said Thursday night that they were not aware of any special arrangements to speed the release of Pakistanis, and said they “do not keep track of deportations by nationality.”

Russ Bergeron, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which conducts removals, said the United States and Pakistan negotiated an agreement in December and January under which Pakistani officials — instead of INS agents — would escort some detainees back home because of security restrictions that prevented the US government personnel from travelling to Pakistan at the time.

Ali, the Pakistani consul, said about 30 Pakistani detainees have been returned home on 13 or 14 “escorted flights” accompanied by Pakistani officials. Another 100 were escorted to planes by US immigration officials and allowed to return to Pakistan on their own because they were not considered flight risks, he said. —Dawn\ Washington Post News Service