Pakistani police arrest alleged al Qaeda financier

Islamabad: Pakistani police said Wednesday they had arrested an al Qaeda financier accused of funding high-profile terror attacks in Karachi and other parts of the country.

The suspect was identified as Shiba Ahmed, a Pakistani, who lived in the upscale Defence Housing Society development in Karachi, Pakistan`s largest city and commercial capital.

"We have arrested the suspect from a posh area (of Karachi), who belongs to al Qaeda South Asia," anti-terror police chief Naveed Khawja told a press conference.

He added Ahmed had been financing militants "on a large scale". 

Ahmed owned chemical businesses in Pakistan and Iran that were the main source of his income and terror financing, according to police.

"The remittances coming from abroad would be used in helping terrorists financially," Khawja said.

The police were tipped off about Ahmed from a key suspect in an attack in the Safoora Goth district of Karachi in which 45 Ismaili Shiites, including women, were killed when gunmen stormed a bus in May.

"Shiba Ahmed not only financed the terrorist act but motivated and brainwashed the key suspects of the Safoora Goth tragedy," Khawja said. 

Last year Pakistan launched a major crackdown on militants after suffering more than a decade of bomb and gun attacks by homegrown Islamist extremists.

A military offensive against Taliban and al Qaeda hideouts in the northwest has been accompanied by what the authorities have called "intelligence-led" operations in cities around the country.