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| India-Pakistan |
| Two al-Qaeda suspects toasted in Karachi siege... |
| 2002-09-11 |
| Pakistani police said they had killed two suspected al Qaeda members and arrested five others after a three-hour shootout Wednesday in the southern city of Karachi in which a young girl was wounded in the crossfire. A police source said the men were thought to be members of al Qaeda, although provincial police chief Syed Kamal Shah declined to comment, describing the men only as "not ordinary criminals." Shootouts with ordinary criminals usually don't run to three hours... Security and intelligence agents raided a three-story building in an upmarket district of Karachi Wednesday morning and arrested two men, but had to call in police support after other people in the building threw a grenade at them. "And when did you realize the men weren't ordinary criminals, Inspector Shah?" "Ummm... It might have been the grenade. Yes, I think that was it..." "There was a shootout which lasted over three hours in which six policemen were injured, one of them seriously," Shah told reporters at the scene. "Cheeze! You shoulda seen it...!" Witnesses said police had fired teargas and thousands of rounds at the building before the gunmen, armed with Kalashnikovs, grenades and sub-machineguns, finally surrendered. "Two criminals were killed and we have arrested a total of five criminals," Shah said. One of the arrested men shouted "Allahu Akbar as he was led away, while another was speaking Arabic, witnesses said. The Kalma, the Muslim declaration of faith, was written in blood on the wall of the apartment's kitchen, a policemen told Reuters. Drama. They're into drama... One officer said one of the men was an Afghan while two others were Arabs. But Shah refused to say who they were. The police source said they had recovered a laptop, some CDs and several thick books from the apartment. That means they can shoot it out with somebody else next week. Karachi seems to have become the al-Qaeda Bigs' hometown — or at least one branch of al-Qaeda. Another one, courtesy of Steve... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |