Islamabad, May 04: Pakistani authorities have rounded up four more Al-Qaeda suspects in two different raids on what the interior ministry today said were hideouts of members of Osama bin Laden's terror network. Two were arrested in southwestern Baluchistan province and two were apprehended in the southern port city of Karachi, the ministry's spokesman Iftikhar Ahmed said.
"The arrests were made recently," he said without specifying a date or further details.
Local media said the arrests followed a lead provided by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). A daily, quoting security sources, said two Arabs of Egyptian origin, identified as Abdul Khaliq Mohammad and Abi Abdullah, were taken into custody in a raid in Karachi's suburban district of Surjani over the weekend.
The security agencies recovered three AK-47 assault rifles, two pistols, two satellite phones and other sensitive communication devices, and a quantity of explosives from their possession, it said.
The raid in Karachi came after the arrest of two other Al-Qaeda suspects -- Jawad al-Bashar of Egypt and an Afghan national Farzand Shah -- from winder town in Baluchistan province, bordering Afghanistan, on Friday. Pakistani paramilitary troops arrested six Al-Qaeda suspects from Karachi on Tuesday, including a top Yemeni operative suspected of a role in the October 2000 suicide bomb attack on the USS Cole.
The attack, in which 17 US sailors were killed, was claimed by Al-Qaeda. Bureau Report