|
50 LeJ members arrested in Karachi
Two Sunni Muslim militants who were planning an attack on rival Shiites blew themselves to bits with a hand grenade after a gunbattle with Pakistani police on Friday, officials said. Police said the men, who were members of the banned Al-Qaeda-linked group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, killed themselves during a raid on their hideout near a Shiite mosque in the turbulent southwestern city Quetta. "When police knocked at their door, they resorted to firing and when besieged they blew themselves up with hand grenades," Quetta police chief Pervez Rafi Bhatti told AFP. "Their bodies were blown into pieces." Five hand grenades, two Kalashnikov rifles and hundreds of bullets were recovered from the house, the walls of which had been daubed with anti-Shiite slogans, police said. "The militants could have attacked Shiite processions in the city today and there is also a possibility they were planning to attack the main Ashura procession" on Sunday, provincial police chief Chaudhry Muhammad Yaqub told a press conference.  Lashkar-e-Jhangvi later said in a statement faxed to newspapers that the militants were its members and that it was proud of their acts. The group vowed it would carry on attacks against Shiites and warned the government not to be happy about killing two of its men. "Our members were ready to launch suicide attacks and by dying they have provided inspiration to other Lashkar-e-Jhangvi mujahideen and Sunni youth to follow their footsteps," spokesman Commander Zarar said in the message. Police said they raided the house in Quetta after neighbours became suspicious about the activities of the men, who rented the house two weeks ago. One of the dead was identified as Niaz Muhammad, a Lashkar-e-Jhangvi activist.
Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-02-18 |
|
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=56790 |