Pakistani intelligence officials arrest two with suspected al-Qaida

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Intelligence agents have arrested two suspected al-Qaida militants in an Internet cafe after two days of following them and monitoring their e-mail, officials said today.

The suspects, including a Yemeni national, were picked up Thursday in the northwestern city of Peshawar after a tip-off that the foreigner was sending e-mail to al-Qaida operatives, two Pakistani intelligence officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Agents began monitoring the men Tuesday. On Thursday, agents posing as customers in the Internet cafe pounced on the two after they sent their latest messages, the officials said.

The officials declined to comment on the content of the e-mail or where it was sent.

One of the two was identified as Khalid Ahmed; the name of the other was not revealed.

The authorities said the suspects were being questioned at an undisclosed location.

Peshawar is the capital of Pakistan's deeply conservative North West Frontier Province, where an Islamic coalition is in power that supports Afghanistan's Taliban militia.

Pakistan has been a key U.S. ally in the war on terror, and its security agencies have arrested more than 450 suspected al-Qaida agents.

Among them was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, who was captured near the capital in March. Mohammed was handed over to the United States and is being held at an undisclosed location outside Pakistan.

In the southern city of Karachi, police said they arrested three members of a separate outlawed Islamic militant group who were allegedly plotting a terrorist attack against an unspecified target. They said they seized six homemade bombs and three pistols.

The men -- alleged members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an organization of extremist Sunni Muslims -- were arrested late Thursday at a home, deputy superintendent of police Amjad Kiyani said.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was banned in 2001 by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in a move aimed at eliminating Islamic extremism from Pakistan.

The group is suspected of killing hundreds of minority Shiite Muslims. In recent months, it has been blamed for attacks targeting Christians and Westerners in Pakistan.

Islamic militant groups were angered by Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led war against the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistan-based Islamic militant groups were linked with the Taliban and many trained their fighters in Afghanistan before the militia was ousted in late 2001.

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