Karachi bomb 'mastermind' quizzed

Twelve Pakistanis died at the US consulate in Karachi in 2002

The alleged mastermind of a deadly bomb attack outside the US consulate in Karachi two years ago has been arrested near the Pakistani city of Lahore.

Naveed-ul Hassan was detained on Wednesday near the Wagah crossing point with India, police said.

Intelligence officials believe Hassan was a member of the Harkat ul-Mujahideen al-Almi militant group.

Twelve Pakistanis were killed when a car bomb exploded outside the consulate in June 2002.

Security officials said Hassan had been working for the past few months as a cloth merchant near Wagah.

There was a two million rupee ($33,700) reward for his capture.

Shootout

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Hassan was the mastermind of the consulate bombing and was behind other attacks, including an explosion at a club in Karachi during New Year's celebrations in 2002 that wounded nine people.

Mr Ahmed said police were hunting for a key accomplice of Hassan who was still on the run.

PAKISTAN'S KEY ARRESTS Omar Saeed Sheikh, February 2002 Abu Zubaydah, Faisalabad, March 2002 Ramzi Binalshibh, Karachi, September 2002 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Rawalpindi, March 2003 Naeem Noor Khan, Lahore, July 2004 Khalfan Ghailani, July 2004, Gujrat

Hassan is the sixth person detained over the consulate attack. Two have been sentenced to death, two given life sentences and one is yet to be tried.

Syed Kamal Shah, police chief for southern Sindh province, said: "We expect to make some more arrests after his interrogation."

Hassan's arrest came on the same day that police shot dead Asim Ghafoor, an alleged militant wanted over the killing of US reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.

Ghafoor was killed after he tried to flee a police raid in Karachi.

Pakistan security forces have had a number of successes against alleged militants in the past few months.

Amjad Farooqi, Pakistan's most-wanted militant, was killed on 26 September.

Alleged al-Qaeda computer expert, Naeem Noor Khan, and Tanzanian Khalfan Ghailani, who was wanted over bombings of US embassies in East Africa, were arrested in July.