Islamabad, 20 Dec. (AKI) - Pakistan's security forces said on Tuesday they had arrested a senior member of a banned militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, believed to be linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Islamic militant, Usman Choto, is wanted in connection with various attacks including a 1997 killing of a senior police officer in the Pakistani province of Punjab. The Pakistani interior minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao however has not confirmed the report, and says he has no knowledge of the arrest. | "I know nothing! Tell them, Hogan." |
Lashkar-Jhangvi is a Sunni Muslim group which has been involved in a series of attacks on Pakistan's minority Shiite community. Both the government of Pakistan and the US government have designated it a terrorist organisation. The group has been implicated in two assassination attempts on Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf and in the death of American reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.
Usman Choto is the third prominent leader of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi to have been arrested since September. These include Asif Choto, who was credited with reorganising the militant group after its top leaders were either arrested or killed between 2001 and 2003. |