Omar1984
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Pakistan arrests gang over Danish embassy attack
8 hours ago
ISLAMABAD (AFP) Pakistani police said Thursday they had arrested a nine-member gang wanted for multiple bombings, including a deadly attack outside the Danish embassy, and for links to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
"We have busted a gang of nine high-profile terrorists, who were involved in several high-profile attacks in recent times," said Rao Iqbal, police chief in Rawalpindi -- the garrison city close to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
A senior police investigator told AFP the nine were linked to Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, which US officials say have become a safe haven for hundreds of extremists fleeing Afghanistan.
The suspects were arrested when a police intelligence team raided their den in Rawalpindi this week, the police official said.
More than 1,500 people have been killed in a huge surge of militant attacks across Pakistan over the last year and a half, waged by extremists opposed to the government's support for the so-called US-led war on terror.
"They were involved in five high-profile suicide attacks (in Pakistan)," said the investigator, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to release the information.
He listed the attacks as bombings outside the Danish embassy and an Italian restaurant in Islamabad; an attack on an army medical corps bus and the killing of Pakistan's most senior military officer to die in a post-2001 attack.
Six people were killed, including a Dane, when a devastating car bomb exploded outside the embassy on June 2, damaging the mission, residences of the Indian and Dutch ambassadors, and nearly destroying a nearby UN agency.
A Turkish woman aid worker died and at least 10 other foreigners were wounded, including four American FBI officials, in a bombing at the popular Luna Caprese Italian restaurant in Islamabad on March 15.
Police said the gang also helped orchestrate a suicide bombing near Islamabad's Red Mosque on July 7 that killed 19 people, mostly policemen.
Police said the arrests marked the highest number of suspected militants captured from one gang from Rawalpindi since Pakistan joined the US-led "war on terror" after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
"They were involved in logistics and providing suicide bombers to hit targets," the senior police official said.
According to senior police officers, the Rawalpindi nine had links to Usama al-Kini, Al-Qaeda's top commander in Pakistan, who was killed in a US missile strike on January 1, in South Waziristan.
He said the ringleader had been identified as Mohammed Illyas, also known as Qari Jamil, a former prisoner held for three years at the US-run Guantanamo Bay detention centre housing alleged suspects in the US-led "war on terror."
Iqbal said police recovered 100 kilograms of potassium chloride, 50 detonators and 20 kilograms of ball bearings, which militants pack in suicide vests to maximise carnage.
Police officials said the gang also provided suicide bombers for an Independence Day attack in the eastern city of Lahore on August 14 last year and an earlier attack on the Naval War College, also in Lahore.
Police said the nine had confessed their involvement in the attacks and would appear in a Rawalpindi court Friday to be charged under anti-terror legislation and remanded.
Pakistan rejects Western accusations that its security forces are not doing enough to clamp down on attacks by Islamist extremists.
Of the other two major attacks to which police have linked to the gang, one killed Lieutenant General Mushtaq Baig, the army's surgeon general, and seven other people on February 25.
On February 4, 2008, a suicide attacker rammed a motorbike into a Pakistan army bus taking medical staff to work in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, killing six people and wounding 38.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h5mXGfoAmZMDrdKznsUL92TPNiyA
Pakistan has done more than any country in this fight against terror, its time the world sees that.
8 hours ago
ISLAMABAD (AFP) Pakistani police said Thursday they had arrested a nine-member gang wanted for multiple bombings, including a deadly attack outside the Danish embassy, and for links to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
"We have busted a gang of nine high-profile terrorists, who were involved in several high-profile attacks in recent times," said Rao Iqbal, police chief in Rawalpindi -- the garrison city close to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
A senior police investigator told AFP the nine were linked to Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, which US officials say have become a safe haven for hundreds of extremists fleeing Afghanistan.
The suspects were arrested when a police intelligence team raided their den in Rawalpindi this week, the police official said.
More than 1,500 people have been killed in a huge surge of militant attacks across Pakistan over the last year and a half, waged by extremists opposed to the government's support for the so-called US-led war on terror.
"They were involved in five high-profile suicide attacks (in Pakistan)," said the investigator, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to release the information.
He listed the attacks as bombings outside the Danish embassy and an Italian restaurant in Islamabad; an attack on an army medical corps bus and the killing of Pakistan's most senior military officer to die in a post-2001 attack.
Six people were killed, including a Dane, when a devastating car bomb exploded outside the embassy on June 2, damaging the mission, residences of the Indian and Dutch ambassadors, and nearly destroying a nearby UN agency.
A Turkish woman aid worker died and at least 10 other foreigners were wounded, including four American FBI officials, in a bombing at the popular Luna Caprese Italian restaurant in Islamabad on March 15.
Police said the gang also helped orchestrate a suicide bombing near Islamabad's Red Mosque on July 7 that killed 19 people, mostly policemen.
Police said the arrests marked the highest number of suspected militants captured from one gang from Rawalpindi since Pakistan joined the US-led "war on terror" after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
"They were involved in logistics and providing suicide bombers to hit targets," the senior police official said.
According to senior police officers, the Rawalpindi nine had links to Usama al-Kini, Al-Qaeda's top commander in Pakistan, who was killed in a US missile strike on January 1, in South Waziristan.
He said the ringleader had been identified as Mohammed Illyas, also known as Qari Jamil, a former prisoner held for three years at the US-run Guantanamo Bay detention centre housing alleged suspects in the US-led "war on terror."
Iqbal said police recovered 100 kilograms of potassium chloride, 50 detonators and 20 kilograms of ball bearings, which militants pack in suicide vests to maximise carnage.
Police officials said the gang also provided suicide bombers for an Independence Day attack in the eastern city of Lahore on August 14 last year and an earlier attack on the Naval War College, also in Lahore.
Police said the nine had confessed their involvement in the attacks and would appear in a Rawalpindi court Friday to be charged under anti-terror legislation and remanded.
Pakistan rejects Western accusations that its security forces are not doing enough to clamp down on attacks by Islamist extremists.
Of the other two major attacks to which police have linked to the gang, one killed Lieutenant General Mushtaq Baig, the army's surgeon general, and seven other people on February 25.
On February 4, 2008, a suicide attacker rammed a motorbike into a Pakistan army bus taking medical staff to work in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, killing six people and wounding 38.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h5mXGfoAmZMDrdKznsUL92TPNiyA
Pakistan has done more than any country in this fight against terror, its time the world sees that.
