Pakistan arrests militants with explosives

Seven members of an al-Qaida-linked militant group were detained along with heroin, suicide vests and explosives, police in Pakistan said today.

Police officer Fayyaz Khan said the raid in Karachi foiled planned terrorist attacks. It also gave new information on how drugs fund Islamist militancy in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Khan said the seven suspects are members of the banned group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. The group is suspected in a failed assassination attempt on Pakistan’s former president and in the beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Police said they seized three suicide vests, 33 pounds of explosives and about 4.5lbs of heroin in the raid yesterday.