Al Qaida man killed in gun battle, says report

Police may have killed a suspected top al Qaida operative today in a four-hour gun battle at a house in southern Pakistan that also led to the arrest of two other men.

Intelligence officials said the dead man was thought to be Amjad Hussain Farooqi, who was wanted for his alleged role in the kidnapping and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002 and two assassination attempts against Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in December 2003.

Other officials said a raid on the house was launched after police received a tip-off that Farooqi was hiding there.

Interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao would not confirm any of the men’s identities, or that one of the suspects was killed.

He said three Pakistani men were arrested who were “possibly involved in terrorist activities inside the country.”

“We can’t confirm their identities yet,” he told The Associated Press in Islamabad. He said they were being interrogated by Pakistani law enforcement agencies.

The raid took place in Nawabshah, a town about 125 miles north east of Karachi.

Local police official Ismail Jamali said two men who had tried to flee were arrested. They were led away in blindfolds by intelligence officials. One of the men was injured in the gun battle.

An intelligence official in Karachi identified the arrested men as Abdul Rehman and Yaqoob Farooqi. It was not clear what relation, if any, he had to Amjad Hussain Farooqi.

Farooqi is believed to have been an associate of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the reputed al Qaida number three captured in Pakistan last year.

Farooqi has been missing since Pearl was abducted in Karachi in January 2002.

Pearl’s captors beheaded the journalist and released a videotape of the killing.

Four Islamic militants have been convicted of his kidnapping but seven other suspects – including those who allegedly slit his throat – remain at large.