Consulate bombing suspect arrested in Pakistan

Pakistani authorities have arrested the alleged mastermind of a deadly bombing near the US Consulate in Karachi two years ago, but another key member of his network is still on the run, a senior official said today.

Naveed-ul Hassan was tracked down yesterday at a clothing shop he had been running for the last few months near Wagah, the main border crossing point between Pakistan and India, near the eastern city of Lahore.

His arrest was announced hours after police in the southern city of Karachi revealed they had shot dead another prominent Islamic militant suspected in the abduction and beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.

The actions mark the latest in a series of high-profile arrests and killings of suspects wanted for attacks in Pakistan since its military leader, President General Pervez Musharraf, made the Muslim country a key ally in the US-led war on terror in late 2001.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Hassan had been the mastermind of the consulate bombing that killed 14 Pakistanis in June 2002 and several other attacks – including a blast during New Year celebrations in 2002 at a popular club in Karachi that wounded at least nine people.

Hassan was allegedly a member of the outlawed militant group Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen al-Alami, and had a two million rupee (€34,000) bounty on his head.

Ahmed said another key member of Hassan’s network, whom he did not name, was still on the run and police were looking for him.

Syed Kamal Shah, police chief for southern Sindh province, said Hassan’s arrest was the result of “proactive intelligence gathering”, and he would be moved to Karachi for questioning.

“We expect to make some more arrests after his interrogation,” Shah said.

So far, four men have been convicted for the consulate bombing. Two were sentenced to death and two others given life imprisonment. Another suspect is in custody. His lawyer, Raza Abdi, said three other suspects are still at large.

Yesterday police and intelligence agents shot dead Asim Ghafoor in a raid in Karachi that sparked a shoot-out as he tried to flee. Ghafoor was wanted in the January 2002 kidnapping and killing of Pearl, a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal who had been researching Islamic militancy.

Police also say Ghafoor was a close aide of Amjad Hussain Farooqi, who was Pakistan’s most wanted militant until he was killed on September 26 in a shoot-out with security forces in southern Pakistan.

Farooqi was reputed to be the top Pakistani facilitator for al-Qaida. He was suspected in the Pearl killing and two attempts to assassinate Musharraf last December. Musharraf survived both attacks on his motorcades but 17 other people were killed.

So far, four men have been convicted in Pearl’s killing. Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-born Islamic militant, was sentenced to death, and three other Pakistani associates were imprisoned for life. All four have appealed their sentences.

Four other suspects wanted in the Pearl case are still at large, said Manzoor Mughal, another police official in Karachi.

Since July, Pakistan says it has rounded up dozens of terror suspects in towns and cities around the country, even as it wages a bloody military campaign against al-Qaida-linked militants along its lawless border with Afghanistan.

The suspects include alleged al-Qaida computer expert, Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, and Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian wanted for the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in east Africa that killed more than 200 people.

In the past three years, Pakistan has handed over to the United States about 600 al-Qaida suspects.

The counter-terrorism efforts of Musharraf have made him a key ally of the West against religious extremism, but drawn criticism at home from those uneasy at his strong ties with Washington.