ISLAMABAD, 14 October 2006 — Eight militants with suspected links to Al-Qaeda have been arrested for an attempted rocket attack in Islamabad, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao said yesterday.
Authorities also seized other rockets, grenades, explosives and hundreds of sniper rifle rounds in the arrests at undisclosed locations, Sherpao told a news conference.
The minister did not give the identity of the detainees but added “indications are that they had links with Al-Qaeda,” while another official said they had visited Afghanistan.
“They are all Pakistanis, they are in police custody, we will disclose their names in due course,” he added.
President Pervez Musharraf said Wednesday that an “extremist” gang had been arrested after two rockets were found near Parliament on Oct. 5 and two more near the spy agency headquarters in Islamabad two days later.
A previously unexplained blast in the Ayub public park in Rawalpindi on Oct. 4, near Musharraf’s army residence, was caused by another rocket, Sherpao said.
The militants had planned to launch simultaneously the rockets in Islamabad and Rawalpindi by the use of mobile phone signals, Sherpao said.
“Fortunately none of these devices went off except one in the Ayub Park Rawalpindi, he said. The rocket did not cause any casualties.
“Our intelligence agencies went into action and a breakthrough was provided by decoding of mobile sets which were attached to these shells,” he added. “The culprits were identified and rounded up,” he said.
Gen. Musharraf said earlier this week that the suspects had possible links to Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network and that the rockets were “maybe” targeting him.
Musharraf, who on Thursday marked the seventh anniversary of his coming to power, has escaped at least three serious assassination attempts in the past.
Sherpao did not confirm if the latest rockets were meant for Musharraf, saying instead that their aim was “to create an unusual law and order situation and general chaos and insecurity among the people of the twin cities.”
Security forces recovered a total of 11 Russian-made rockets, 49 rocket-launched grenades, two fragmentation grenades, 920 sniper rifle bullets, detonators and plastic explosives in a series of raids, he added. More arrests were expected shortly, the minister said.
“The militants had visited Afghanistan” in the past, Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah said at the same press conference, adding that they were “trained terrorists.” No police or security personnel were among those arrested, he added in response to a question.
US to Free Two Pakistanis
Two more Pakistanis held at the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba will be released, Sherpao said yesterday.
“They are expected to arrive (in Pakistan) on Oct. 15,” he said, adding that six other Pakistanis held at the Bagram US air base in Afghanistan were also to be freed this week.
After the expected releases five Pakistanis will remain in Guantanamo Bay and 14 will still be at Bagram, he told reporters.
The US government has already released scores of Pakistanis who were held as “enemy combatants” at the detention center after the 2001 invasion of neighboring Afghanistan by US-led forces. The Pentagon said Wednesday that 17 other detainees were transferred from Guantanamo Bay, reducing the population there to 440. It said 16 of the detainees were flown to Afghanistan and that the other went to Morocco.
The visibly weary and shaken Afghan detainees and an Iranian due for repatriation arrived in Kabul on Thursday, alleging they had suffered mental torture at the hands of their US military jailors.
