WASHINGTON, June 18: The long arm of American law enforcement authorities has caught up with a Pakistani fugitive after a four-year manhunt in the frontier wilderness of Baluchistan.

Mir Aimal Kansi, 33, accused in a 1993 shootout that killed two CIA employees right in front of the Agency's headquarters near here, was apprehended in Pakistan by FBI agents and brought to the United States today to stand trial.

In a terse statement consonant with the tone of the whole mysterious episode, the FBI said today that Kansi was ``handed over'' to US authorities by ``Afghan individuals'' after the United States had placed a $ 2 million reward on his head.

By implication, the Bureau suggested that some tribal Afghan leader had led Kansi into an American trap in exchange for the booty. Officials refused to confirm if the money had been paid to the Afghans or how exactly they planned the operation.

Kansi had been on the lam since the morning of January 25, 1993, when he startled the morning rush hour traffic outside the gates of the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, by pulling out an AK-47 and loosing off shots. He killed two CIA employees Frank Darling, a communications engineer, and Lansing Bennet, a doctor and injured three others.

He fled the US almost immediately. But US officials to this day have not offered any explanation or motive for Kansi's act. Judging by the sketchy details that have emerged from time to time, vendetta is the most likely explanation.

Kansi, a well-read college graduate with a master's degree in English literature from Quetta's Baluchistan University, was apparently familiar with CIA and American operations in the area. His father, a wealthy tribal chief, worked for US and Pakistani intelligence agencies during Afghan war ferrying arms to the rebels fighting Soviet occupation.

The elder Kansi died in 1989 leaving the son deeply disturbed. Either due to a misunderstanding or a sense of betrayal, Mir Aimal Kansi turned bitterly anti-American. He came to the US via Germany and worked several small-time jobs in the Reston and Herndon area close to the CIA headquarters in Virginia. Either by accident or design, he briefly worked in a courier firm run by the son of a former CIA official.

According to accounts pieced from interviews with those who knew him, Kansi bought an AK-47 rifle from a gun shop in Chantilly, Virginia, in January 1993. His roommate, Zahed Ahmed Mir, told the authorities that Kansi wanted to attack a symbol of the United States -- the White House or the CIA.

Kansi's terrorist act enraged the US and set off one of the biggest and most intense manhunt in FBI and CIA history. He was listed among the FBI's ten most wanted fugitives and a $ 2 million reward was offered for his capture. Teams from both FBI and CIA were posted in Pakistan. Kansi was spotted often but he was said to be on the move all the time, often wearing a burka. He also kept crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan in an area dominated by Pathans loyal to his tribe. Several times the FBI and CIA were said to have set traps for him but he escaped each time. Kansi was flown into Washington in a special US aircraft on Wednesday evening and transferred by helicopter to a jail in Fairfax county where he will await arraignment on Thursday.

Saudi blast suspect

A Saudi man sought by the FBI for questioning about the 1996 truck bombing that killed 19 US airmen in Saudi Arabia has arrived in Washington under guard after being deported from Canada, a high-ranking US official said.

The official said a plane carrying the suspect, Hani Abdel-Rahim Hussein Al-Sayegh, who was escorted by FBI agents after leaving an Ottawa prison, arrived at an airport in the Washington, DC.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.