12 December 2004	Sunday	29 Shawwal 1425

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PESHAWAR, Dec 11: The government is mulling over deporting three foreign militants to their home countries after investigators declared them of almost "zero intelligence value", official sources said.

"They have no intelligence value", said the official, while quoting investigators who are interrogating the three Central Asians arrested from South Waziristan region last month.

However, the army spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan told Dawn that investigations were still under way and it was early to say something about the future of these people.

"The government will offer them to go to their own countries, once interrogations completed", Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan said.

Uzbek embassy in Islamabad expressed ignorance about the arrest of its nationals in the South Waziristan. Sources informed that none of the Central Asian states had sought deportation of the suspects.

The three foreigners were captured by tribal volunteers in two separate areas in the troubled tribal region and handed them over to the military authorities.

A teenager Khalid who claims to be from Tajikistan was captured by the Mehsud tribesmen in Sarwekai sub division of the South Waziristan on Oct 1 after a toy bomb killed four school children and wounded two others.

Officials claimed that over 500 local and foreign militants were captured during various operations in the volatile region, but only three foreign suspects have been produced before the media.

The military authorities believed that terrorist outfits were also involved in human trafficking, brought minors from the Central Asian Republics for sabotage activities in the country.

Khalid, 15, and his slain accomplice had planted device on the roadside in the Sarwekai area, claimed by the interrogators.

Mehsud tribesmen captured Hussain, the ethnic Tajik of Afghanistan and Uzbek national Abdul Qahar in Makin area on Nov 23, being interrogated by the intelligence agencies in Peshawar.

Privy to the investigations, the official said, the government had three options: first, to deport militants to their respective countries; second, grant them refugee status; and, lastly hand them over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

"There is a possibility to hand them over to the ICRC", a source told Dawn. However, the ICRC spokesman in Islamabad, when approached, said that their organization had not been contacted so far.

The spokesman said: "ICRC is willing to assist, according to its mandate, all people affected by the situation prevailing in South Waziristan region."

The military authorities have yet not produced the three detainees before any court of law. Although, no proper courts are established in FATA, but as tribal areas are part of Pakistan, therefore, the constitutional guarantees regarding the fundamental rights are applicable, claimed legal experts. Under the constitution a detainee has to be produced before a court of law within 24 hours of their arrest.