Pakistan arrests sectarian militant chief

PAKISTAN: Pakistani police have arrested the chief of a banned Sunni Muslim militant organisation with links to Al-Qaeda along with four of his colleagues, officials said Monday.

Rizwan Ahmad, the head of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group, was seized Sunday in a raid on a house in the eastern city of Lahore on suspicion of preparing suicide attacks, said Omar Virk, a senior police investigator.

Police were still hunting for another suspect believed to be carrying suicide belts and other weaponry to carry out attacks on members of Pakistan's minority Shiite community, Virk said.

Ahmad has a one million rupee (16,666 dollar) bounty on his head for his alleged role in an October 2004 attack on a Shiite mosque in Sialkot, bordering India, that killed 28 people.

"He was the mastermind of the attack," Virk said.

Police found several pistols when they arrested Ahmad and the other four militants in Satto Katla, a suburb of Lahore, the investigator added. No one was wounded in the raid.

Islamabad, Tuesday, AFP