Pakistan has arrested at least five al-Qaida-linked terrorists who were plotting suicide attacks on government leaders and the U.S. Embassy, officials announced Saturday. Security forces captured five or six suspects — one Egyptian, the others Pakistani — in the past week across the country, and seized some weapons, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters. He said authorities were hunting for four to five other suspects, and that those already detained had "wanted to kill hundreds of innocent people" and cause unrest in Pakistan. Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat told The Associated Press, however, that a "gang" of a dozen suspects was captured.
| "A half dozen, a dozen... It was a bunch." |
He said the group been planning suicide attacks on "important personalities," and that it wanted to hit the official residence of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Parliament and the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Islamabad, as well as Army House in the neighboring city of Rawalpindi. They also wanted to target some government ministers, he said. "This is a gang of suicide bombers, and our security agencies have done a remarkable job by foiling this plot," Hayyat said, adding that those captured were "definitely they are linked to al-Qaida."
| My guess is that they're cannon fodder, not worth much, except maybe for the Egyptian. Just take them out in the middle of a vacant lot and explode them... |
In the past five weeks, Pakistan has captured more than 60 terror suspects, including some key al-Qaida operatives, officials have said. Days ago, authorities said they'd foiled a plot by terrorists to sabotage last weekend's Independence Day celebrations in Islamabad, making at least two arrests. Hayyat said that some of the suspects arrested in the past week had links with Abdul Rashid Ghazi, a senior cleric and head of a religious school in Islamabad. He said security agencies seized missiles, rockets, detonators, electronic surveillance equipment and other ammunition planned for use in attacks — including on Independence Day.
| The usual sacred paraphernalia found in a madrassah... |
The officials confirmed the identity of only one of the suspects: a Pakistani, Farrukh Usman, arrested at the religious school in the capital. |