Pakistan raids Islamic terror group
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-04-07 08:58

Pakistani police have arrested nine suspected Islamic militants in connection with a suicide bombing at a U.S. consulate in 2002 and an attack on a hotel that killed 11 French nationals, police said Tuesday.

The men belonged to the shadowy Harkat-ul Mujahideen al-Alami and include the group's leader, Syed Sohail Akhtar, known as "Mustafa," said police chief Syed Kamal Shah. They were detained in Karachi in overnight raids, he said.

"It's a huge success," said Shah. "Their arrest should convey a message to all terrorists that one day they will have to face the law. Police found a large cache of weapons and bomb-making material with them," he added.

The arrests come during Pakistan's biggest crackdown on Islamic militants since joining the U.S.-led war on terror in 2001 and followed a siege in Pakistan's tribal region last month in which at least 167 militants were captured and 63 killed.

Shah said the nine suspects were involved in a June 14, 2002, suicide bombing at the U.S. Consulate in Karachi that killed 12 Pakistanis. The group also carried out a similar attack outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi in May 2002, he added.

Eleven French technicians and three Pakistanis died when a suicide bomber blew up a car parked in front of the Sheraton, the deadliest attack on foreigners in Pakistan since President Pervez Musharraf allied himself with Washington.

Police blame Harkat-ul Mujahideen al-Alami for at least 30 attacks in Karachi, including the bombing of the Macedonian Consulate in December 2002 and explosions at 21 gas stations owned by two foreign oil companies, Shell Pakistan and Caltex.

"Mustafa is the man who dropped the suicide bombers both at the U.S. Consulate and at the Sheraton Hotel. He motivated the bombers," said Shah.

Harkat-ul Mujahideen al Alami is a splinter faction of Harkat-ul Mujahideen, a guerrilla group that fought against Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region.

It changed its name from Harkat-ul Ansar after being declared a terrorist group by the United States in the late 1990s.

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court sentenced three militants to death in June last year for organizing the suicide attack at the Sheraton. One was Mohammad Sohail, a fugitive who was sentenced to death in absentia.

It was not immediately clear if Mohammad Sohail was Mustafa.

Four men were also convicted for the June 2002 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Karachi.

Pakistani police have broken up a number of Islamic militant cells, some with links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, in the past couple of years.

Islamic militants are furious over the Pakistani government's support for the U.S.-led war on terror. Police blame Islamic extremists for most of the attacks targeting Western concerns, top government officials and religious minorities.