ISLAMABAD, Aug 22: Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Sunday that law-enforcement agencies had arrested nine suspected terrorists, including two Egyptian masterminds, Qari Ismail and Sheikh Essa, in connection with a plot to attack important official buildings.

Speaking at a news conference, the minister said the masterminds of the plot were being grilled by the investigation agencies. He said the agencies were looking for five more suspects in the sabotage plot.

He said Pakistan firmly stood by its commitment as a front-line state in the war on terrorism. He said the country was taking all steps necessary for the eradication of terrorism from its soil.

Sheikh Rashid said the names of former National Assembly member Javed Ibrahim Paracha and Maulana Ghazi Abdur Rashid were being linked with the terrorist group as facilitators but they could not be accused till an inquiry into the case was completed.

He said that according to Maulana Rashid, one of the suspects, Usman, had met him through Javed Paracha, but the former MNA had said that he had sent a number of people of the name to the Maulana and he could only identify the accused if his photograph was shown to him.

He said another mastermind of the plot, who was to come from Afghanistan to execute it, had been taken into custody. He said two suspects, Ghulam Mustafa and Usman, who were to lead the attacks in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, had been arrested.

He said the national law-enforcement agencies had nabbed a number of important terrorists during the last month and infiltrated their network. He said the group had planned to carry out subversive activities over the last week and dumped ammunition in the Peshawar Road area but the law-enforcement agencies foiled their conspiracy by timely unearthing the plot.

He said the weapons seized from the terrorists included bombs, hand-grenades, rockets, rocket launchers, detonators and other explosives. He said the government did not plan to target seminaries. The minister said that the elements that earlier operated in the tribal areas shifted their activities to the major cities.