KARACHI, 19 November 2004 — The alleged mastermind of the deadly bomb blast two years ago near the US Consulate in Karachi has been arrested. His key accomplice in the outlawed Harkatul Mujahedeen Al-Alaami militant group is still at large.
Hours after Karachi police said Wednesday that they had shot dead another prominent militant, Asim Ghafoor, suspected in the abduction and beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002, Naveedul Hassan was nabbed from his clothing shop he had been running for the last few months near Wagah, the main border crossing point between Pakistan and India, near Lahore, the capital city of Punjab.
“It’s a big catch as he has been on the run for the past two years,” senior police investigator Manzoor Mughal said. “He was also an absconder in the April 2002 foiled attempt on President Pervez Musharraf in Karachi.”
Mughal said Hasan was a member of Harkatul Mujahedeen Al-Alaami, whose leaders were convicted of the assassination attempt last year and were sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Hasan was alleged to have parked an explosives-laden vehicle on Karachi’s busy airport artery road where Musharraf’s motorcade was expected to pass on April 26, 2002.
The plot failed because a remote control detonator malfunctioned.
The same vehicle was later used in the US Consulate attack on June 14.
Harkatul Mujahedeen Al-Alaami is an offshoot of Harkatul Mujahedeen which sends guerrillas to fight Indian rule in the divided region of Kashmir.
Hasan’s capture was the second big success for Pakistani police this week. On Wednesday they killed Ghafoor, a militant from the outlawed Jaish-e-Muhammad group. “In the last two days we’ve been getting good news, as they were both on the list of most wanted,” Mughal said.
Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said police were looking for another key member of Hasan’s network. He did not name the person.
Security forces have arrested or killed hundreds of militants since Pakistan joined the US-led war on terror in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
In Islamabad, officials said US and Pakistani defense officials would meet in early December in the capital to review defense requirements of the latter’s armed forces.
“The Defense Consultative Group (DCG) is meeting early next month,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told a press briefing, a day after the Pentagon unveiled the proposed $1.2 billion weapons deal with Pakistan.
The Pentagon on Tuesday notified the US Congress about three proposed arms deals with Pakistan worth $1.2 billion which included delivery of eight P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft, valued at up to $970 million, 2,000 TOW-2A missiles and 14 TOW-2A missiles in a deal valued at $82 million.
Clearing another sale, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), which handles foreign arms sales for the Pentagon, said Pakistan had also requested sale of six PHA-LANX rapid-fire 20-millimeter guns for surface ships and upgrade of six additional gun systems, a contract worth up to $155 million.
Spokesman Khan conceded that there was no mention of F-16 aircraft in the deal, but added that the US government was attentive to Pakistan’s legitimate requirements.
“Everything is on the track and this is a good development,” Khan said.
Pakistani air chief Sadaat Kalim had recently said the United States had shown willingness to sell 18 F-16s to Pakistan to strengthen combat capabilities of its air force. Americans had delivered 40 F-16s to Pakistan to meet the country’s security concerns in the wake of the former Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
The DCG meeting in early December is expected to firm up more proposals envisaging a list of weapons Pakistan wants to buy from the United States, including F-16 aircraft, sources told DPA.
The group will also discuss ways to enhance cooperation in the areas of counter-terrorism, military education and training including joint military exercises.
In March, the US granted Pakistan the status of a major non-NATO ally in addition to pledging a $3 billion economic and military aid package to it and writing off loans worth $1.7 billion owed by Islamabad, “in recognition of the country’s role as the front-line state in the war against terror.”
— Additional input from agencies
