Archives

By Amir Zia

KARACHI, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Two people were killed in the Pakistani city of Hyderabad on Saturday when a bomb ripped through their bus as police in the port city of Karachi said they had arrested four suspected militants and thwarted other attacks.

Also in Karachi, relatives of an Islamic militant suspected of involvement in the murder of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl, identified his body among four mutilated corpses found in the ruins of a house apparently destroyed in an accidental blast.

Extremist Islamic groups, opposed to their government's support for U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan, have been blamed for a series of bomb attacks this year targeting Westerners, Christians, police and government officials.

Police and ambulance workers in Hyderabad, about 160 km (100 miles) north of Karachi, said two people were killed by the bus bomb and at least nine were wounded.

"One of the victims died on the spot, while the other on his way to hospital," said senior police official Sheirdil Kharal.

Police in volatile Karachi, where there have been a series of bomb attacks this year blamed on Islamic militant groups, said they had arrested four militants as they prepared to blow up a bridge in the city.

The four men belonged to the banned group Jaish-e-Mohammed, or Army of Mohammad, which is also fighting Indian rule in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir.

The arrests were made on Friday night when the four were discovered carrying four hand grenades and three kg (seven lb) of explosives in an apparent bid to destroy the Malir river bridge, police official Basheer Ahmad told Reuters. Ahmad said police believed the group also planned to carry out suicide bomb attacks on Karachi airport and at another airport at Sibi, in the southwestern province of Baluchistan.

Intelligence officials say militants are now aiming for softer targets because security has been tightened at diplomatic missions, offices of foreign companies, hotels and government buildings.

The four men were remanded in police custody and were being interrogated, police said.

Earlier this month, police arrested three men who they suspected of planning to kill U.S. diplomats in Karachi by ramming them in a car packed with explosives.

ACCIDENTAL BLAST

Police said a prominent militant, Asif Ramzi, may have blown himself up accidentally on Thursday, along with three other people, while making bombs in Karachi.

Ramzi, was suspected of involvement in the murder of U.S. reporter Pearl and he was also wanted in connection with a series of bomb attacks in Karachi, accidently blew himself up while making bombs on Thursday.

"The wife and mother of Asif Ramzi visited the morgue on Saturday and recognised his body," Tariq Jameel, deputy inspector general of police, told Reuters.

Ramzi's relatives had also visited the morgue on Friday and initially denied that Ramzi's body was among the four corpses found in the rubble of a collapsed three-storey building.

"But today they requested a second visit," Jameel said. "They recognised the body through marks on his foot and torso."

Police said they had also taken a blood sample from Ramzi's mother for DNA tests to make certain the body was his.

Ramzi led a faction of an outlawed Sunni Muslim group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi that has also been blamed for a string of attacks on Pakistan's minority Shi'ite Muslim community.

The group had strong ties with the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan and is suspected of having links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, officials say. Al Qaeda is blamed for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Pearl, South Asia bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped and murdered in Karachi early this year while researching a story on Islamic militants in Pakistan, against the backdrop of the September 11 attacks.

Another militant, British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, was sentenced to death in July for masterminding Pearl's kidnapping and murder, although he has lodged an appeal. 

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager