06 February 2004	Friday	14 Zilhaj 1424

KABUL, Feb 5: Pakistani police have handed to Afghan authorities a warlord they arrested three months ago who had fought the rule of President Hamid Karzai, an official said on Thursday.

"Yesterday Padsha Khan Zadran, along with his brother Amanullah Khan Zadran, was handed over to the Afghan authorities at the Torkham border," deputy spokesman for Karzai, Hamid Elmi, told AFP.

Elmi said Padsha Khan had led an armed revolt against the government and was considered a criminal. However, the judiciary would decide his future, he said.

"He will go on trial," Elmi said without giving any details.

Padsha Khan and his brother are being kept in an unknown "guest house" run by the Ministry of Frontier and Tribal affairs, he said.

Padsha Khan's son, Abdul Wali, confirmed that his father and uncle had been arrested by Pakistani police in November and handed over to Afghan authorities on Wednesday.

Padsha Khan, an anti-Taliban warlord who helped the United States-led forces during an operation against the extremist Islamic regime, was briefly governor of southeastern Khost province following the toppling of the Taliban in late 2001. But he became a strident opponent of Karzai's administration after he was sacked from his post shortly after the Taliban fell.-AFP