ISLAMABAD, 14 June 2004 — Pakistani authorities have arrested 10 Al-Qaeda suspects, including a nephew of detained terror mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and eight Central Asians believed responsible for a recent assassination attempt against a senior military official, the interior minister said yesterday.
The men were arrested over the weekend in separate raids in the southern port city of Karachi, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat told a hastily called news conference.
Among them was Musaad Aruchi, who Hayat said is a nephew of former Al-Qaeda No. 3 Khalid, detained in March 2003 in a city near the Pakistani capital. Aruchi had a $1 million bounty on his head, Hayat said, and is believed to have been behind several attacks in Pakistan.
“It is a major breakthrough,” he said. “We have made a big dent in the Al-Qaeda network.”
The interior minister said among those taken in were eight Central Asian suspects, including Chechens and Uzbeks, all of whom had confessed to their part in the Thursday attempt to assassinate Lt. Gen. Ahsan Saleem Hayat, the corps commander of Karachi. The general was unharmed, but 10 other people died in the attack.
“They have confessed to a key role in the attack,” said Hayat. “They have a direct link to Al-Qaeda.”
A tenth suspect arrested in the past 24 hours was identified as the mastermind of two sectarian attacks in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta in the past few months that left scores dead. Hayat did not reveal his name. The interior minister said the Central Asian suspects had all trained at Al-Qaeda camps in South Waziristan, a tribal region near the Afghan border that is believed to be a possible hide-out for top Al-Qaeda figures Osama Bin Laden, his deputy, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and others.
He identified the leader of the eight men with the single name Attaullah, and said the group was involved in two recent bombings at Shiite mosques in Karachi. Attaullah was among those detained.
The Pakistani military has been engaged in four days of fierce fighting in the area that has left more than 50 suspected militants and 17 security forces dead.
Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, the chief army spokesman, said earlier yesterday that operations were winding down and that the army and paramilitary troops “successfully dismantled and destroyed” militant hide-outs in the offensive.
Hundreds of Al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters are believed to be hiding in the area.
