Pakistan arrests five suspected al-Qaida terrorists plotting wave of suicide attacks

PAKISTAN announced that it has arrested at least five al-Qaida-linked terrorists who had been plotting to launch suicide attacks on government leaders and the US Embassy.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters security forces had captured five or six suspects - one Egyptian, the others Pakistani - in the past week across the country, and had seized weapons.

Authorities were hunting for four or five other suspects, he said.

However, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat said about a dozen suspects had been captured. He said they had been planning suicide attacks on “important personalities”.

Mr Hayyat said the group wanted to hit the official residence of Pakistanis President General Pervez Musharraf, parliament and the US Embassy in the capital, Islamabad, as well as Army House in the neighbouring 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,” Mr Hayyat said, adding they were “definitely linked to al-Qaida”.

In the past five weeks, Pakistan says it has captured more than 60 terror suspects, including some key al-Qaida operatives.

Days ago, authorities said they had foiled a terrorist plot to sabotage last weekend’s Independence Day celebrations in Islamabad, making at least two arrests.

Mr Hayyat said 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 terror attacks.

The officials only confirmed the identity of one of the suspects: a Pakistani, Farrukh Usman, arrested at the religious school in the capital.

Mr Rashid said the suspects had “wanted to kill hundreds of innocent people” and cause unrest in Pakistan.

Details of the plot were announced as Pakistani troops backed by artillery and aircraft attacked two suspected terrorist hide-outs near the rugged Afghan border, killing and wounding a number of militants, said Pakistan army and security officials.