| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: WoT |
| Man Accused of Killing Pakistanis Arrested |
| 2006-06-21 |
| KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) -- Police on Wednesday arrested a high-ranking member of an al-Qaida-linked extremist group suspected of orchestrating attacks that have killed more than 150 mostly Shiite Muslim Pakistanis, an official said. Usman Kurd, a member of the outlawed Sunni Muslim group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was arrested after trading gunfire with police in the southern port city of Karachi, said Fayyaz Khan, a senior police officer. Police acting on a tip cornered Kurd in a western Karachi neighborhood and ordered him to surrender, Khan said. Kurd fired a pistol as he walked toward the security forces, who returned fire and overpowered him. Nobody was wounded in the exchange. Kurd also was carrying a hand grenade, police said. Kurd was accused of heading Lashkar-e-Jhangvi's operations in the restive southwestern Baluchistan province, where he faced 25 charges of murder and other violent acts, Khan said. Kurd, in his mid-30s, had trained in Afghanistan before its ruling Taliban militia was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in late 2001, Khan said. Crimes he has been accused of organizing include a March 2004 attack on a Shiite mourning procession in Quetta that killed more than 40 people. He was also linked to the June 2003 shootings of 12 Shiite police trainees in Quetta. There was a $33,000 bounty on his head. |
| Posted by:Steve |