Terror plots targeting parliament and mosque foiled

Security forces arrest 2 would-be suicide bombers in the Islamabad thwarting two terror plots in the city, says Malik.

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Friday said security forces had arrested two would-be suicide bombers in the Islamabad, adding that the thwarted attacks targeted the parliament and a mosque in the city.

"We have foiled a plot to attack parliament and surrounding buildings, and a mosque and arrested two militants," Malik told state television.

Security forces launched a manhunt for others who may have been involved in the alleged plot, which officials said could have caused chaos in the heavily guarded capital.

Malik said one of the men came from the northwestern town of Bannu and intended to carry out a suicide attack on a mosque in F8-1.

The second man wanted to attack the parliament, surrounding buildings in the heavily fortified government enclave and "important personalities," Malik said.

Senior Islamabad police official Bani Amin confirmed the arrests and the intention to attack the mosque.

"The arrests were made today in Islamabad. They had suicide jackets. Their target was a mosque in Islamabad."

Asked if there were other militants on the run, Amin said: "Obviously such people do not operate alone and there is a whole network behind them. Yes we are searching for others."

Around 4,000 people have been killed in suicide and bomb attacks that have been blamed on homegrown Taliban and other militant networks across Pakistan since July 2007.

After a gun and bomb attack on the CID building that killed 18 people in Karachi on November 11, analysts said militant organisations had regrouped and were capable of dragging government forces into urban guerrilla warfare.

A suicide attack in October 2009 targeted the UN's World Food Programme office in Islamabad, killing five people.

In September 2008, a massive truck bombing brought down part of the Marriott hotel, killing at least 60 people and sparking an exodus of Western families who had been living in the capital.