A senior Al-Qaeda operative linked to assassination attempts on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister-designate Shaukat Aziz has been arrested in the UAE and handed over to Pakistan, Pakistan Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Sunday.

Qari Saifullah Akhtar, described as the 'Operational head of Al-Qaeda', was caught in Dubai on Friday after he was tracked down by Pakistani intelligences officials, who acted  on a tip off provided by captured Al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan, he said.

The security officials will probe his alleged involvement in the twin-attack on President Pervez Musharraf in December 2003 and recent failed suicide attack on Prime Minister-designate Shaukat Aziz. They would also try to get an insight into the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and Taliban chief Mullah Omar.

The Information Minister confirmed the handover by saying, "Yes we can confirm that we have Qari Saifullah." He, however, did not specify when he was handed over to Pakistan.

Akhtar, also a leader of the radical Islamic group Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami, was handed over to Pakistani  security officials by Dubai for interrogation and detention following a request from Islamabad, Ahmed said.

Pakistani officials believe that Akhtar knew about the hideouts of Osama-bin-Laden and Mullah Omar as he was with them in Afghanistan at the time of the US-led war against Taliban in 2001 and later fled to Saudi Arabia and then to the
United Arab Emirates.

 Akhtar used to run one of Al-Qaeda's training camps in Afghanistan. 
             

More reports from Pakistan