Posted on 06/24/2002 3:40:25 AM PDT by kattracks
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jun 24, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Pakistani authorities working with the FBI have detained 45 Muslim militants for questioning about deadly car bombings at a U.S. Consulate and a Karachi hotel, an official said Monday.
The men were detained late Sunday in the eastern city of Lahore. They have not been charged in either attack.
The June 14 car bombing outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi killed 12 people and injured 50. A May 8 suicide bombing outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi killed 11 French engineers and three other people, including the bomber.
An official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the men belong to two banned Sunni Muslim groups - Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba.
Both groups have traditionally targeted the country's Shiite Muslim minority and have not been identified with attacks against foreigners. However, police have speculated they may be working with al-Qaida-affiliated groups to take revenge on Westerners and the Pakistani government for the overthrow of the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.
The detentions were based on leads from some of the 28 men - including several Arabs - rounded up last week as part of a crackdown on Islamic extremists and al-Qaida members believed hiding in Pakistan, the official said.
On Sunday, Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said police had identified the groups responsible for the U.S. Consulate attack in Karachi and would name them publicly soon.
Haider described the investigation into the consulate blast as "30 to 40 percent" complete and said the attackers were apparently linked to the hotel bombers.
Pakistani investigators said some members of Jaish-e-Mohammed, an al-Qaida affiliated group that has been fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi rented several houses this year for Arab militants, including Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, Abu Zubaydah.
Zubaydah was arrested in a joint U.S.-Pakistan operation on March 28 in the city of Faisalabad.
Religious violence has increased since Musharraf joined the U.S.-led war against terrorism in September.
Besides the Karachi bombings, an unidentified person hurled grenades into a Protestant church in Islamabad on March 17, killing four worshippers. The attacker also died as a grenade exploded in his hands.
The Wall Street Journal's South Asia correspondent, Daniel Pearl, 38, was kidnapped in Karachi in January and killed. Four men are on trial for his killing. Police are seeking seven other people they say also be connected to the Karachi bombings.
By MUNIR AHMAD Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
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