Pakistan arrests three 'suicide bombers'

PAKISTAN: Pakistani police Friday arrested three suspected suicide bombers linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban who were planning attacks in the southern city of Karachi, officials said.

Agents raided their house in the city and after a shootout recovered suicide jackets and other weapons including hand grenades, investigation chief Javed Bukhari told AFP.

Six other suspects managed to escape, he said.

During the initial interrogation the suspects disclosed their plans including attacks on foreigners, police and other government officials, he said.

"All three were suicide bombers and we have also recovered explosives and jackets used for suicide bombing and other weapons," including two Kalashnikovs, two pistols and three hand grenades, Bukhari said.

"They were all trained by foreign militants in Wana," the main town in the semi-autonomous tribal region of South Waziristan, where Pakistani forces have battled militants.

They allegedly belonged to a group headed by Qari Zafar, an Al-Qaeda linked militant wanted for a March 2006 suicide car bombing in Karachi which killed a US diplomat on the eve of a visit to Pakistan by US President George W. Bush.

Zafar, who allegedly prepared the explosives-laden car used in the attack, remains on the run.

Investigators said they were also probing their links to a recent series of suicide attacks in the capital Islamabad and other northern towns and cities which have been blamed on pro-Taliban extremists in the tribal zone.

The suspects had earlier planned to attack a major defence exhibition in the volatile port city as well as processions by minority Shiite Muslims, police said.

In late January Karachi security forces arrested 11 Islamic militants including one allegedly linked to Baitullah Mahsud, a wanted Taliban chief fighting government forces in South Waziristan.

Islamabad, Friday, AFP