ISLAMABAD, July 7: Pakistan will extradite three British nationals of Pakistani origin back to Britain where they are wanted in a murder and other criminal cases, officials said Thursday. London had asked Islamabad to arrest them. They had escaped to Pakistan following the March 2004 murder of 18 years old Chris Donald in the Scottish city of Glasgow, police sources said. The accused — identified as 29 years old Imran Shahid alias Baldy, his younger brother Zeeshan Shahid alias Crazy, and their cousin Faisal Mushtaq — were caught by the police in Lahore last week.

The trio, whose parents settled in Britain 40 years ago, were picked up by the authorities after a two-member British police team travelled to Pakistan to help with the search. They are currently in a jail near Islamabad.

Sources in Lahore said the trio had told the police that they murdered the teenager to avenge alleged attacks on immigrants of Asian origin in Britain.

“We have received a request from the British government for their extradition,” Tariq Parvez, chief of the Federal Investigation Agency, said.

“We are awaiting a court hearing after which the three woudl be extradited to Britain,” he said. A court in Rawalpindi on Monday remanded the three to judicial custody till July 18.

It is not exactly known when the three arrived in Pakistan but British police sources say they have been involved in drugs, fraud, forgery and criminal assaults.

Imran Shahid, described as the gang’s ringleader, had already spent four years in a British jail for two counts of assault and forgery, while other cases involving firearms offences and assault are pending against him.

Pakistan and Britain do not have a formal extradition treaty but individuals can be extradited under an arrangement between the two governments.

The Pakistani community in Britain is about one million. The British government has recently tightened up immigration laws to curb illegal entry of foreigners.—AFP