Intelligence agents arrested two British nationals of Pakistani origin who provided information on the terror plot aimed at blowing up US-bound passenger jets from Britain, a senior government official said yesterday.
One suspect was arrested in the eastern city of Lahore and the second was picked up in Karachi, Pakistan's main port on the Arabian Sea, the official said on condition of anonymity because he did not have authority to speak formally on the issue.
"Our intelligence agencies made the arrests about one week ago," he said.
He did not have details on whether the suspects have links with al-Qaeda or any Pakistani militant group.
An official at the British High Commission in Islamabad could not confirm the arrests, and referred questions to Pakistan's government.
Pakistan's government said on Thursday it had played "a very important role" in uncovering the plot -- allegedly to bring down as many as 10 jetliners in a nearly simultaneous strike that US officials say was suggestive of an al-Qaeda operation.
Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said yesterday that Pakistan had made some arrests, but refused to give details.
Several Pakistani intelligence officials also confirmed the arrest of a third suspect in the eastern city of Faisalabad four or five days ago, but could provide no details on the suspect's identity or nationality. They said they expected more arrests would follow.
British authorities arrested 24 people on Thursday based partly on intelligence from Pakistan. The suspects were believed to be mainly British Muslims, at least some of Pakistani ancestry.
Two US officials said British, US and Pakistani investigators were trying to trace the steps of the suspects in Pakistan and were seeking to determine whether a couple of them had attended terrorist training camps there.
A Pakistani intelligence official said an Islamic militant arrested near the Afghan-Pakistan border several weeks ago provided a lead that played a role in "unearthing the plot."
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Pakistan, a key ally of Britain and the US in the war on terrorism, has been long been regarded as a center of Islamic militancy.
Three of the four suicide attackers in the July 7 bombings on the London transport system last year that killed 52 people were British Muslims of Pakistani origin and had visited Pakistan before the attacks.
One of the bombers visited a pro-Taliban seminary run by the hard-line Jamaat al-Dawat group in the eastern city of Lahore before the blasts.
On Thursday, Pakistan placed the hard-line group's leader, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, under house arrest for a month in Lahore, but officials said it wasn't linked to the aircraft plot.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not