ISLAMABAD, Feb 4: The government said on Tuesday that it had handed over the arrested Al Qaeda suspect, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, to the United States which had now shifted him to Afghanistan for further investigations.

The news of the handover was first broken to reporters on Tuesday by Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed at the National Assembly and was later confirmed by Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat.

Sheikh Rashid Ahmed also told Dawn that the Iranian-origin Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is thought to be the mastermind of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, had Kuwaiti nationality.

The minister said the suspect had been handed over to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and had been shifted to Afghanistan for investigations on Tuesday morning.

“It might be possible that the accused had a Pakistani passport, but he is not a Pakistani national,” the information minister said.

Earlier, talking to reporters at the National Assembly, the minister said the suspect had been handed over to FBI with the consent of the Kuwaiti government.

“We have asked the government of Kuwait regarding the handing over of the accused and it has permitted the Pakistan government to do so,” he said.

He said local agencies had completed investigations against the accused before he was handed over to the FBI.

The minister said the hard work and professionalism shown by the local agencies had made the arrest of Al Qaeda suspect possible.

He said the US had announced head money of $25m on Khalid Shaikh and his arrest was believed to be a major breakthrough for Pakistan. “Pakistan will continue its support to help the international community against terrorism,” he said.

He said a Pakistani national, Ahmed Qudoos, who police said was arrested with Khalid Shaikh from the Westridge neighbourhood of Rawalpindi, would be tried in a local court.

Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat told Dawn that Pakistani investigators had kept Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in custody for three days and obtained “a lot of information that would lead to the arrest of other key leaders of Al Qaeda”.

The minister said several Al Qaeda leaders were still in Pakistan. However, he ruled out the possibility of Osama bin Laden’s presence in the country.

He said three people including a Pakistani, Ahmed Qudoos, were arrested in Saturday’s raid in Rawalpindi.

“We presented the Pakistani national in a local court on Tuesday and obtained his six-day physical remand,” he said.

The minister said those who were saying that Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan should provide solid evidence to the government so that investigation could be carried out to apprehend him.

The interior minister denied that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, whom he described as the third high-ranking man in Al Qaeda, had Pakistani nationality, saying he was a Kuwaiti national.

The minister said the suspect had never obtained a Pakistani passport as he had been travelling on a Kuwaiti passport.

He said foreigners living in Pakistan with no resident status could not be described as guests.