Karachi: Pakistan police said they arrested four Taliban militants on Thursday who were planning "terror attacks" in the financial hub Karachi and recovered suicide vests and explosives.
Police did not make any link between the foiled attacks and the killing on May 02 on Pakistani soil of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
The four members of main militant umbrella group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were arrested during a police raid in the Pirabad area of the southern port city, senior police official Omar Shahid told a press conference.
"The police are interrogating the four men, Babar Iqbal Babli, Maaz Irfan, Habibur Rehman and Habib Ullah, whom Taliban had trained in North Waziristan tribal region," Shahid said.
"They have told us that Taliban commander Badar Mansoor had sent them to Karachi to launch terror attacks on security forces and government buildings," Shahid said.
"They would extort money from business community and had plans to attack police offices, security agencies and sensitive government establishments.”
"We are interrogating the suspects for some previous terror attacks including blasts in the city."
Three suicide jackets, rifles, pistols and explosives were recovered in the raid, Shahid added.
Largely spared of attacks until recently, Pakistan`s politically tense economic capital, where NATO ships supplies to US-led foreign troops fighting in Afghanistan, has seen attacks on Navy buses.
The main Taliban faction claimed responsibility for attacks on navy buses last month which killed nine and injured scores.
Security has plummeted in Pakistan, where more than 4,240 people have died in bomb attacks blamed on the Taliban and al Qaeda in the last four years.
Pakistan has been in the grip of a domestic and international crisis since US Navy SEALs flew in, seemingly undetected, from Afghanistan to identify and kill Saudi-born bin Laden in Abbottabad, close to Islamabad.
Pakistani officials are on the hunt for two drive-by shooters who lobbed two hand grenades at the Saudi consulate in Karachi on Wednesday, causing no casualties.
Bureau Report
