KARACHI - Pakistan will shortly deport the brother of terror suspect Hambali and 18 other Malaysian and Indonesians who were arrested last month on suspicion of having links with the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a senior interior ministry official said.

"The decision has been taken to deport them and the process will start in the next couple of days," head of the interior ministry's crisis management cell, Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, told AFP.

Indonesian and Malaysian authorities have no objections to their deportation, he said.

"None of them would be prosecuted here," Cheema added.

Pakistan is holding 13 Malaysian and six Indonesian students arrested during separate raids on religious seminaries in the port city of Karachi last month.

Hambali's younger brother, Rusman Gunawan, was among the Indonesians arrested from the Abu Bakar seminary in Karachi.

"He too will be deported, but presently he is in our custody," Cheema said.

A four-member Indonesian team visited Pakistan last month to seek information about the students and also to interrogate Gunawan.

The team also held negotiations with senior interior ministry officials.

Too sensitive

However, so far neither the government of Pakistan nor the Indonesian or Malaysian governments have disclosed the nature of the detainees' alleged terrorist plans or targets.

"The matter is too sensitive and has been shared at government-to-government level," an intelligence official here said, on condition of anonymity.

The suspects will be deported from Karachi in phases, he said.

"Gunawan still insists he is not part of Jemaah Islamiyah, but supports his brother's cause," the official said.

Pakistani security agencies have completed the probe and shared information with Indonesian and Malaysian authorities, he said.

Hambali was arrested in Thailand in August and is in US custody at a secret location. - AFP