Plot foiled to bomb Americans

2010-02-08 21:48

Lahore - Pakistan police claimed on Monday to have arrested six suspects, including a would-be suicide bomber, who were allegedly plotting to attack a five-star hotel and kill Americans.

Police recovered a suicide vest fitted with 26 hand grenades during the operation in Lahore, the country's second-biggest city, police spokesperson Zulfikar Hameed told a news conference.

Police in Pakistan, which is under huge US pressure to do more to root out Islamist militants, routinely claim to foil high-profile attacks, but rarely release any details of the alleged plots.

It is not possible to confirm the alleged plots independently.

The US embassy in Islamabad said it had no immediate information about an alleged plot targeting Americans in Lahore.

Police paraded the six suspects wearing black masks to hide their identity.

"Their target was Lahore's Pearl Continental hotel where some Americans were staying," Hameed said.

"They wanted large-scale death and devastation.

"Five terrorists were assigned to explode hand grenades and amid expected panic in the hotel, the suicide bomber was to blow himself up," he said.

Police said the six were trained in Pakistan's northwest tribal district of Khyber on the Afghan border and were captured following a tip-off.

Hameed did not say when and how they were arrested.

- SAPA