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Pakistan makes more arrests after slaying militant
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-28 08:37
Pakistani security forces arrested more suspected Islamic militants a day
after they shot dead a key suspect wanted in a failed bid on President Pervez
Musharraf's life and the killing of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl.
Security forces shot dead Amjad Hussain Farooqi, described as one of the
principal members of al Qaeda in Pakistan, in a gun battle on Sunday afternoon
in the southern city of Nawabshah.
"We've eliminated one of the very major sources of terrorist threat,"
Musharraf told reporters during an official visit to the Netherlands.
"Not only was he involved in the attacks on me but also in attacks elsewhere
and terrorist attacks elsewhere in the country. So a very big terrorist has been
eliminated."
Security forces besieged Farooqi's hideout in Nawabshah, after a phone tap
operation confirmed his presence. Two Pakistani companions were captured and are
under interrogation.
Brigadier Javed Cheema, an interior ministry official, said subsequent
arrests were made in several parts of the country.
Police sources said at least three men were detained in the Sindh town of
Sukkar, about 400 km (240 miles) north of Karachi.
Farooqi, who had a price of 20 million rupees ($338,000) on his head, was
considered the main Pakistani planner of two failed assassination bids on
Musharraf, including a suicide attack on his motorcade on Dec. 25 last year that
killed 15 people and wounded 45.
Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told a news conference that
Farooqi was a known associate of Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who
had advised him to target only the senior most figures in Pakistan like
Musharraf.
Farooqi's controller was believed to be Libyan Abu Faraj Farj, who has
emerged as a leading al Qaeda figure in Pakistan.
Farooqi was also one of seven men wanted in the 2002 kidnapping and slaying
of Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter.
Farooqi's death prompted authorities in Karachi to issue a red alert at
foreign missions, government offices and places of worship to counter any
retaliatory assaults by extremists.
"He was among the top terror masterminds," said Karachi police chief Tariq
Jameel. "We have put security on alert to face any possible reaction to his
killing."
Pakistan, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terror, has arrested more than
500 al Qaeda suspects, including senior members of Osama bin Laden's network and
handed many of them to the United States.
Bin Laden himself is thought to be hiding in the forbidding mountainous
terrain bordering Afghanistan.
Dozens have been arrested since July, including al Qaeda computer expert
Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, who helped the authorities track down other al Qaeda
operatives.
Fayyaz Leghari, a deputy inspector-general of police, said Farooqi had
connections with foreign militants and was the main organizer and facilitator of
major terror attacks in Pakistan.
Sheikh Omar, a British-born Islamic militant in jail and sentenced to hang
for his role in Pearl's murder, named Farooqi as one of the conspirators,
Leghari said.
Farooqi was also wanted in a suicide car bombing outside Karachi's Sheraton
Hotel in May 2002 that killed 11 French technicians working on a submarine
project in Pakistan, he said.
Pakistani media said Farooqi was also behind a 2002 suicide bomb attack on
the U.S. consulate in Karachi that killed 12 Pakistanis.
Sherpao said Farooqi planned a rocket attack on the U.S. consulate in Karachi
in January 2002, but it failed, and he also "assisted" in attacks on a church in
Islamabad in March 2002, in which five people were killed including two American
nationals.
Investigators said Farooqi was a member of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
group. Police officials said he rented the house in Nawabshah a couple of months
ago, but refused surrender to the besieging security forces.
Security personnel seized computers, maps, foreign and local currency from
the house, said one official from Nawabshah.
Islamic hard-liners are furious over Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led war
on terror, and have launched a series of attacks targeting Westerners,
government officials and the religious minorities.
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