Pakistan: 5 al-Qaeda members nabbed for planned attacks

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - Pakistan Wednesday announced the arrest of five suspected al-Qaeda operatives said to be planning major terrorist attacks in the country’s commercial capital, Karachi.

The alleged terrorists, arrested in an operation from Karachi’s western district, were trained in war-torn Afghanistan and Syria, Col. Qaiser Ahmed of the paramilitary Pakistan Rangers told a press conference.

Their faces covered by white sheets, the five suspects, along with the weapons allegedly seized from them, were presented before the media at the press conference.

Qaiser said the group belonged to Al-Qaeda’s South Asia chapter, and had already been involved in several attacks and killing of security personnel and civilians in Karachi, the country’s most populous city.

On their alleged training in Afghanistan and Syria, he declined to give details.

The Pakistan army and other law enforcement agencies recently launched a nationwide anti-terrorism operation following a fresh spate of terrorist attacks that have killed over 130 people in the last two months. The attacks include February’s suicide bombing of a Sufi shrine in the southern Sindh province, killing over 80 people and injuring nearly 400.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a conglomerate of various militant groups operating in Pakistan, and its allies have claimed responsibility for the attacks.