Pakistani authorities say Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected al-Qaeda mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has been transferred to American custody and flown out of the country.

Pakistani security services arrested Mohammed on Saturday. Just after the arrest U.S. officials had said he was already in their custody outside of Pakistan.

Pakistani officials, however, had said Mohammed was still in their country and co-operating with interrogators.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed shortly after his arrest (AP PHOTO)
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed shortly after his arrest (AP PHOTO)

Pakistan's information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said Mohammed was flown out of Pakistan on Tuesday to a country in the South Asian region.

Previous high-profile al-Qaeda suspects have been flown to a U.S. detention centre at a military base in Bagram, Afghanistan, although Ahmed wouldn't confirm that's where Mohammed was taken.

Ahmed said Pakistan had left the handover to the Americans up to Kuwait, Mohammed's country of origin. That country raised no objections.

The minister said Pakistani interrogators had extracted the information they needed from Mohammed, but wouldn't say if that information had brought American and Pakistani investigators any closer to capturing Osama bin Laden.

The Pakistanis wanted information on al-Qaeda links with Pakistani militants, efforts to regroup Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters near Afghanistan, and the killing of American reporter Daniel Pearl last year.

U.S. authorities want to interrogate Mohammed about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as well as the U.S. embassy bombings in 1998 and any future al-Qaeda plans.