New York: Hundreds of al-Qaida operatives in Karachi are being currently protected by Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, which is "eager" to send them back to their native countries, according to a media report.

"The ISI, specially the middle ranks and slightly higher than the middle ranks - previously directly working with these al-Qaida operatives, are eager to provide them with safe exits to their home countries, ignoring the American demands that all of them must be hunted down, arrested and handed over to FBI," an unnamed Pakistani government official of the Sindh province was quoted as saying.

In view of this, a "grim" inter-agency war was currently on between the Intelligence Bureau, "controlled and directed" by President Pervez Musharraf and other agencies including ISI and the military intelligence under the control of "other Generals" of Pakistan Army, he was quoted as saying by 'The South Asia Tribune', a weekly website newspaper.

"The Pakistani men were making direct deals with these fugitive al-Qaida men for providing (them) safe passage...but since FBI is directly involved in operations to hunt them down, a serious tug of war has developed," the paper said.

The official said Pakistani agencies show reluctance to move against the hideout of al-Qaida operatives whenever the FBI picked up the signals and pointed out their presence. "But under the FBI pressure the Intelligence Bureau was active and most of the arrests were made by them," he said.

There were also reports that some Arab countries were pressurising Pakistan to hand over the al-Qaida men to their respective countries, the newspaper said.

PTI