| A group of suspected militants arrested last month were “brainwashed” by radical clerics near the Afghan border and were planning suicide attacks against the military, an intelligence official said on Saturday. The six suspects, including a retired army major, were arrested in December in raids in eastern Punjab. The arrests were made public this week. The suspects are yet to be charged. The official said the men worked under Al Qaida-linked Ahsanul Haq, a retired major said to be behind the November 1 suicide attack on a Pakistan Air Force bus in Sargodha. Police, meanwhile, shot and killed two suspected militants during a late Friday shootout in Multan, said Fayyaz Ahmad, an area police chief. Three other suspects fled, Ahmad added. |