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Forty-five Arab Families Handed Over To Qaddafi Foundation
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Afghan
Arabs flown to Libya for help
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By Aamir Latif, IOL South Asia correspondent
ISLAMABAD, Feb. 15 (IslamOnline) - Over 200 members of forty-five Arab families, mostly women and children, have been handed over to the Qaddafi Foundation in Islamabad from where they are scheduled to leave for Libya within a day or two, a foreign ministry official told IslamOnline Friday.
Most of those Arab families have recently arrived in Islamabad from Afghanistan, where they had been detained after the ouster of the Taliban government. Some of them were arrested by Pakistani security officials during attempts to enter Pakistan since November 15, 2001, the official said.
The heads of families had either died or been arrested by the anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan, following the fall of the Taliban regime, the official added.
Those Arabs come from Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Kuwait, UAE, Jordan, Yemen and Algeria, which had refused to accept them. The son of Libyan President, Moammer Qaddafi, who was also the Chairman of the Qaddafi Foundation, had offered the government of Pakistan -- during his visit two months ago -- to provide shelter and rehabilitation for the bereaved families in Libya until their respective countries agreed to take them back.
“We discussed the offer of the Qaddafi Foundation with the Afghan interim government and the U.S. authorities," the Pakistani official said. "After a month-long discussion, these families were taken to Pakistan a few days ago.”
The total boarding and lodging expenses of these families in Libya will be the responsibility of the Qaddafi Foundation, he added.
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