Pakistani security forces arrested suspected Islamic militants today, 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.
Karachi police chief Mr Tariq Jameel
"Both the suspects are Pakistanis, but it is too early to give details about them," said Mr Raouf Siddiqui, home 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 20 million rupees ($338,000) on his head, was considered the main local planner in a suicide attack on Musharraf's motorcade on December 25th last year that killed 15 people and wounded 45.
He was also one of seven men wanted in the 2002 kidnapping and slaying of Mr 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 Mr Tariq Jameel. "We have put security on alert to face any possible reaction to his killing."
Pakistan, an ally in the US-led war on terror, has arrested more than 500 al-Qaeda suspects, including senior members of Osama bin Laden's network and turned many of them over to the United States.
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 co-operating with the authorities to track down other al-Qaeda operatives.