Pakistan has revealed dramatic plans of an al-Qaeda-linked group of terrorists to launch suicide attacks on key government leaders and the US Embassy earlier this month. A senior Interior Ministry official said yesterday that 11 or 12 suspects - one Egyptian, the others Pakistani - had been arrested over a week ago in the capital and other parts of the country. Last weekend Islamabad said it had cracked a plot to sabotage Pakistan's Independence Day celebrations on August 14, and late on Saturday officials finally revealed some details of that plot.
| Details, details. Deep laid plots. |
| Deep laid plots. Sinister deep laid plots. Evil, sinister deep laid plots. |
| Dark conspiracies. Wheels within wheels. I can say no more. Mutter mutter... |
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters that a terrorist group had planned attacks on key installations in the capital and the neighbouring garrison city of Rawalpindi. Among the targets were the official residence of President General Pervez Musharraf, the prime minister's house, a convention centre, parliament, the US Embassy and the headquarters of the army.
| And Arkansas! And Missouri! And Wyoming! and New Caledonia! Yeaaaaaarrrrgh! |
He said security agencies had seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition, including dozens of bombs, grenades, rocket launchers and detonators.
| School supplies, it's that time of year. |
| Or religious paraphernalia... |
Ahmed said only five or six people had been captured, while several others were on the run. It wasn't clear why he reported fewer arrests than the Interior Ministry.
| Dontcha hate it when the ministries can't keep their stories straight? |
Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat said intelligence agents made the arrests between August 10-15 and found neatly tailored suicide belts and other material that could be used in such an attack. He said they were linked to al-Qaeda and wanted to kill "important personalities" including Musharraf and government ministers. "They wanted to destabilise Pakistan, they wanted to create unrest and they wanted to weaken this government," he said.
| More coal to Newcastle... |
Hayyat said four of the arrested men were planners. |