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Pakistan arrests suspect in Thursday’s factory attack

Authorities have arrested a man they believe would have been a third bomber in twin suicide blasts at an army munitions factory that killed 67 people in one of Pakistan’s deadliest terrorist attacks, police said yesterday.

The man was detained shortly after the blasts at two factory gates as workers streamed into the military’s largest weapons-producing complex just west of the capital. Police also seized several other suspects and an explosives-laden jacket, local police official Mohammed Saeed said.

“The army and police arrested a suspected bomber not far away from scene of the attack,” Saeed said. “They also recovered a suicide jacket from a nearby mosque and seized explosives.”

It was unclear whether the suspect was found with the explosives or why he apparently failed in his mission.

Thursday’s attacks in Wah, 30km west of Islamabad, also wounded 102 people. They underlined the threat posed by militants to the Muslim world’s only nuclear-armed nation as well as its war-ravaged neighbor, Afghanistan.

They were especially a blow to Pakistan’s military, which is fighting militants in troubled Bajur tribal region near Afghanistan, where Taliban, al-Qaeda and local Islamic militants are believed to be hiding.

Hours after the attack, an umbrella group of militants claimed responsibility, saying it was to avenge the army’s air strikes in Bajur.

“The army has killed hundreds of innocent people, and we attacked it to teach it a lesson,” said Maulvi Umar, a spokesman for Pakistani Taliban groups.

The recent weeks’ fighting in Bajur has displaced more than 250,000 residents.
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