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Pakistani militant arrested over Shiite leaders death
KARACHI -Pakistani police arrested an activist from a banned Sunni Muslim group in connection with a suicide attack in Karachi last week that killed a rival Shiite cleric, police said on Wednesday. Arshad Khan, from the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi extremist outfit, was seized on Tuesday in a raid in Hyderabad, 170 kilometers (105 miles) north of Karachi, officials said. A Kalashnikov rifle and a hand grenade were also found. We are interrogating him to know whether he has links or involvement in the killing of Hassan Turabi, Mazhar Mashwani, an investigator in the criminal investigation department, told AFP.Shiite religious leader Turabi and his young nephew were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the clerics house in Karachi on July 14, sparking riots by enraged supporters. Turabi was the Sindh province president of Shiite party Islami Tehrik. His party is a member of the countrys main alliance of religious parties, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, with suspected links to Osama bin Ladens Al-Qaeda network, is among the fiercest militant groups in Pakistan and has been blamed for dozens of attacks on Shiites. The group has also been linked to the 2002 murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl and two failed attempts in 2003 on the life of President Pervez Musharraf, who is a key ally in the US-led war on terror. Posted by: Steve 2006-07-19 |
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