UN bombing suspect arrested

2009-11-20 18:08

Islamabad - Pakistan police said on Friday they were holding a suspect in connection with a suicide attack at a UN office last month and a string of other bombings in the capital Islamabad.

"Five blasts took place in Islamabad in 2009, four of them have been investigated and he is involved in all four of those blasts," Islamabad police chief Kalim Imam told a news conference.

Police paraded the man before a battery of cameras. He had a shaved head and black beard, and was wearing a traditional brown shalwar khamis.

Imam said the suspect aided in the World Food Programme office suicide attack in Islamabad on October 5 in which five UN workers were killed.

"He brought the man to the World Food Programme (office)," Imam said.

Police seized suicide jackets, about 8kg of explosives and ball bearings used to make bombs in his possession.

The suspect belongs to Islamabad's radical Red Mosque and a group based in the Orakzai tribal region bordering Afghanistan, Imam added.

Around 100 people were killed when Pakistan troops stormed Islamabad's Red Mosque to flush out militants in July 2007, sparking a more than two-year suicide and bombing campaign that has killed more than 2, 50 people nationwide.

- SAPA