Pakistan police arrest 13 terrorists including suicide bombers

In major swoops, spread across the key federal capital and the southern port city of Karachi, Pakistan police nabbed 13 suspected terrorists linked to the al Qaeda, with authorities claiming that terror strikes on VVIPs had been averted.

While, six Taliban militants were arrested in two raids in the eastern city of Sargodha, on the outskirts of the federal capital, seven Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terrorists were picked up on Saturday in Karachi, officials said.

The haul from the terrorists included suicide vests, explosives and huge amount of banned drugs like heroine, indicating that the militants planned to hit politicians, foreign targets and places of worship.

And among those arrested included a major recruiter of suicide bombers with police saying that arrests had foiled major terrorists strikes in the south and east of the country.

The six suspected Taliban terrorists caught in the eastern city of Sargodha today, were from Tehrik-e-Taliban, police said they had seized a cache of arms and explosives during the raids. They apparently could have been on a mission to carry out revenge attacks against the strike on their leader Baitullah Mehsud.

The six men arrested during two raids in the city had links to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and elements in the troubled North Waziristan Agency, district police chief Usman Anwar told reporters. 

"They have links with the Tehrik-e-Taliban and some people in Miranshah (in North Waziristan). Due to the connivance and abetment of these elements, they were planning to carry out attacks in different areas," Anwar said.

Among the arrested terrorists was Zaid Mustafa, who Anwar said recruited suicide bombers for training in Afghanistan.
 
Mustafa is also suspected to be an intermediary between the Taliban in the tribal belt and militants in other parts of Pakistan, he said.

Some officials also described Mustafa as the chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban in Punjab province. It is believed that he had provided logistics and support to militants for attacks in Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi, they said.

The arrested terrorists had plans to carry out attacks next week on imambargahs or Shia prayer halls, police posts, politicians, "foreign targets", a public gathering and textile mills in Faisalabad, he said.

Police seized a large cache of arms, explosives and suicide jackets from the terrorists. TV channels beamed footage of the arrested men, all of whom had beards and long hair. They were presented to the media in Sargodha with their faces covered.

Earlier, police in the port city of Karachi nabbed seven members of the al-Qaeda linked outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group that has been blamed for abortive attacks on former president Pervez Musharraf and killing of Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl.

The suspects were arrested from the posh Defence View area on Saturday night and a huge cache of arms including suicide vests, explosives and large quantities of heroin seized from them, DIG Saud Mirza told reporters.

With the swoop on these elements, police claimed to have thwarted an attempt to carry out suicide attacks in the city. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is a group close to Taliban, has also been linked to attacks on former former premier Shaukat Aziz Tarin.

The suspects, according to police had been trained in camps in South Waziristan tribal region and had plans to target offices of intelligence agencies and government officials in the city.

Police seized three suicide jackets, 15 kg of explosives, four AK-47 rifles, four pistols, two gas masks, five kilogrammes of ball bearings, 200 bullets and remote controls and batteries for explosive devices from the men.