Cyprus Police Arrest 10 Pakistani Students Suspected of Links to al-Qaida
The Associated Press
NICOSIA, Cyprus July 9, 2004 — Police have arrested 10 Pakistani students suspected of belonging to an al-Qaida network on this Mediterranean island, police and media said Friday.
Cypriot Interior Minister Andreas Christou said on state-run radio that the students were awaiting deportation. He refused to comment on the al-Qaida suspicions, saying only “their arrests are connected to security considerations.”
The arrests followed reports from foreign security organizations that the students were linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network, police officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.The newspaper Politis reported the students had been arrested earlier this week on suspicion of belonging to an al-Qaida network.
No information was released on their identities, their length of stay in Cyprus or their alleged activities.Sotiris Drakos, a lawyer for some of the students, told state-run radio that his clients “are innocent and have no links with terrorism.”
Radio reports said one of the men already has been deported to Pakistan, while the others were being held pending deportation.
Cyprus, closely allied with the United States and Britain, has several thousand students from Asia and the Arab world.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040709_735.html
**Pakistan angry with Cypriots **
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan yesterday reacted angrily to the deportation of 10 Pakistani students by Cypriot authorities, saying that weaker nations were taking extreme measures to make themselves allies in the war on terror.
“The Cypriot authorities decided to deport the Pakistani students on the basis of unspecified suspicion. They themselves have said no terrorism-related charges were established against them,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said. Khan said Pakistan Ambassador in Lebanon Asma Anisa, who is accredited to Nicosia, was in touch with the Cypriot authorities “and we would like to get an authentic response from them.” The Cypriot authorities last week said the Pakistanis were deported for reasons of the “highest national security and terrorism” following information received from foreign intelligence.
“I think (when) weaker and vulnerable nations try to burnish and brandish their credentials on the war on terrorism, they resort to such practices,” the Pakistani spokesman said.
**Burney to challenge students’ deportation in European Courts **
Monday July 12, 2004 (0400 PST)
Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International and Prisoners Aid Society Monday announced to challenge the deportation of ten Pakistani students from Cyprus in the European Court of Human Rights.
KARACHI, July 13 (Online): Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International and Prisoners Aid Society Monday announced to challenge the deportation of ten Pakistani students from Cyprus in the European Court of Human Rights. Ansar Burney Advocate in a statement said that these Pakistani students were not involved in any kind of terrorist activity and asked the United Nations to make it clear that every Pakistani or Muslim is not a terrorist nor have links with terrorist groups including Al-Qaida. After the arrest of 10 Pakistani innocent students in Cyprus and their illegal deportation on invalid and so-called terrorism charges, that gives a bad name to Pakistan and Islam, the Chairman of the Trust, warned international community that such nonsense steps of foreign Countries are augmenting hatred among the peaceful human beings. He said terrorists should face justice either they are Muslims, Jews, Hindu, Christian or of any religion or of any nationality, but not innocents. “There should be no discrimination on cast, colour, creed, religion etc. in between the human beings,” Burney added. The human rights lawyer, Ansar Burney, said he was not convinced by the Cyprus government’s case. “The Cyprus government has no evidence to prove that these people were Al Qaeda or any other terrorists groups members. We don’t believe this was a genuine security case in Cyprus, none of it makes sense,” Mr Burney said.
Ansar Burney said that hundreds of Pakistanis have been victimised of the global campaign against terrorism after 9/11. Most recently the 10 Pakistani students have been arrested in Nicosia Cyprus on 7th July 2004 on allegations of having links with Al-Qaida, without any proof. These students were arrested from the south cost resort of Larnaka after US intelligence’s warnings to Cypriot authorities that foreign interests on the Island could be the targets of attack. He asked the relatives of 10 Pakistani students deported on terrorism charges from Cyprus to contact Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International at 6 Hassan Manzil, Arambagh Road, Karachi or by phone (021) 2626274, 2628719, 2623382, 2623383 Mobile: 0300 8243459 in this regard. “It is most unjustified that whenever there is intimation of terrorist attacks or terrorism anywhere in the world only Pakistanis and Muslims are blamed and being victimised,” he held. These Pakistani students were studying at a local college in Cyprus. The director of the collage Mr. Nicos Nicolaou has described all the ten students as “excellent students”. A friend of one of the suspects in Cyprus said that the Pakistanis did not know each other that well and the only connection between them was that they went to the same college.
“The Cyprus government deported all these students despite that nothing have been proved against them. This is worst human rights violation that on mere suspicion the students are being deported. If the Cyprus government has any suspicion about them they should be proved. These acts of Cyprus government will bleak the future of these students,” Burney maintained. In the meantime Ansar Burney in a letter to the Prime Minister, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat has asked, as under what law eight Pakistanis were handed over to United States. Even Pakistan and the United States have yet to sign an extradition treaty and no legal formalities were met before handing over the Pakistani citizens to US, he added. He asked primer Shujaat about eight Pakistani citizens, of them six alleged drug traffickers were handed over during the President General Parvez Musharraf and Former Prime Minister Jamali’s government to US and two of them were handed over during the Nawaz Sharif tenure. According to the report, the alleged drug traffickers handed over to the US are Izharul Haq, Abdul Gaffar Khan, Gulat Khan Khattak, Haji Sher Bahadur, Haji Omar Buksh, Zaman Khan, Abdul Sattar and Abdul Sattar.
Pak students deported from Greek Cyprus not from Turkish Cyprus
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Monday clarified that the ten students deported from Cyprus were deported from Greek Cyprus. “The arrest and deportation of the ten Pakistani students were taken place in the Southern part of Cyprus, which is under the jurisdiction of the Greek Cypriot administration,” said a press statement issued here by the office of the representative of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. “With regards to the news items of the arrest and the deportation of ten Pakistani students from “Cyprus”, it is deemed necessary to make it clear that in the Island of Cyprus there are two states, one as Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and other is the Greek Cypriot administration of Southern Cyprus,” the statement said. Hence the arrest has no bearing on the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which has full sovereignty on the Northern part of Cyprus, it added.