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TASHKENT (Uzbekistan): Uzbekistan has asked Pakistan to extradite a number of suspected Al-Qaeda fighters of Uzbek origin who have been captured during Wana operation, a French news agency quoting Uzbek President Islam Karimov reported Tuesday.

'Pakistan's Successful Operation'

"I have expressed Uzbekistan's desire to extradite all Uzbek citizens or former Uzbek citizens captured in Pakistan," Karimov said.

"The whole operation in Pakistan has been successful and I hope that the Pakistani side will understand Uzbekistan's wishes," Karimov told journalists.

Backdrop

A substantial number of citizens or former citizens of this former Soviet republic are thought to be among 100 suspected Al-Qaeda fugitives captured by Pakistani troops in recent days in Pakistan's tribal South Waziristan region, which borders Afghanistan.

Extraditions to Uzbekistan have proved controversial however as security forces in this Central Asian state have been accused of systematically torturing inmates and thus fanning the flames of extremism.

Remnants of Militants

Those Uzbeks captured in Pakistan in recent days are thought to be remnants of the numerous militants who fled Karimov's hardline secular state in the 1990s to join the Al-Qaeda network based in neighbouring Afghanistan.

As Pakistani officials negotiated on Wednesday with around 500 fighters still entrenched in mud-brick tribal fortresses in northwest Pakistan observers there were predicting that many would turn out to be Uzbeks.

With the arrests of Central Asians and intercepted radio conversations in Chechen and Uzbek, regional experts believe the fighters may have been defending a Central Asian militant leader.