Pakistani security forces arrested more suspected Islamic militants a day after they shot dead a key suspect wanted in a failed attempt on President Pervez Musharraf's life and the killing of US journalist Daniel Pearl. 

Security forces shot dead Amjad Hussain Farooqi, described as one of the principal members of al-Qaeda in Pakistan, in a gun battle on Sunday afternoon in the southern city of Nawabshah. Two other men, caught during the siege, were under interrogation.

"Both the suspects are Pakistanis, but it is too early to give details about them," said Raouf Siddiqui, home (interior) minister for the southern province of Sindh.

Brigadier Javed Cheema, a senior interior ministry official, said subsequent arrests were made in several parts of the country, but only named the city of Sukkar, also in Sindh.

Farooqi, who had a price of US$338,000 on his head, was considered the main local planner in a suicide attack on Musharraf's motorcade on December 25 last year that killed 15 people and wounded 45. He was also one of seven men wanted in the 2002 kidnapping and slaying of Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter.

Farooqi's death prompted authorities in Karachi to issue a red alert at foreign missions, government offices and places of worship to counter any retaliatory terror assaults by extremists.

"He was among the top terror masterminds," said Karachi police chief Tariq Jameel. "We have put security on alert to face any possible reaction to his killing."

Musharraf yesterday hailed the killing of Farooqi.

"We've eliminated one of the very major sources of terrorist threats. Not only was he involved in the attacks on me but also in attacks elsewhere and terrorist attacks elsewhere in the country. So a very big terrorist has been eliminated," Musharraf said.

"It's a great success and he was the most wanted man in the terrorist history of Pakistan and we killed him and we arrested two, three more people who are also very important and we believe these arrests will also give a great breakthrough," Pakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said.

Meanwhile, a roadside bomb killed five Pakistani troopers and wounded ten more traveling in an convoy in the troubled tribal region of South Waziristan.

The explosion happened on the road east from Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, to Jandola, close to the latest scene of an army crack down on foreign al-Qaeda linked militants.

Pakistan has arrested more than 500 al-Qaeda suspects, including senior members of Osama bin Laden's network. Bin Laden himself is thought to be possibly hiding out in the forbidding mountainous terrain bordering Afghanistan.

Dozens have been arrested since July, including al-Qaeda computer expert Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, who has been cooperating with authorities to track down other al-Qaeda operatives.

(China Daily September 28, 2004)