KARACHI, May 23: Six alleged militants of the banned Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Alami were arrested by the Crime Investigation Department (CID), well-placed sources told Dawn on Sunday evening. A huge cache of arms was recovered from their possession, they said.

They were arrest on a lead provided by the ring leader of the banned organization, Kamran alias Atif, picked up on May 19 following a shootout in Buffer Zone. A woman passerby was killed in the crossfire. Police had recovered arms, ammunition and literature about bomb-making from his possession.

Kamran was carrying head-money of Rs3 million and was allegedly involved in US consulate bombing in June 2002, and an attempt on President Musharraf's life near airport.

During an extensive interrogation, Kamran had given a lead that enabled the CID personnel to arrest his accomplices, the sources said, and added that acting upon the tip off, the CID police conducted raids at several places in the city over the past three days.

Those arrested during the raids have been identified as Imran alias Sunny alias Munna alias Murtaza, a resident of Gulistan-i-Jauhar; Mohammad Amir alias Nadeem, a resident of Federal B Area; Mohammad Abid alias Nasir and Khurram Shahab alias Farrukh, residents of North Karachi; Nasir alias Master, a resident of Lasbela Chowk; and Naveed Hamid alias Michael alias Bilal, a resident of Nazimabad.

Giving details of the haul, sources said that six submachine guns, four RPG-7 rockets and their four launchers, fuses, three grenades, four TT pistols, two crackers and a number of rounds and magazines of klashnikov and TT pistol were recovered from the possession of the six suspects.

The CID police are interrogating the suspects for their alleged involvement in subversive and terrorist activities. Investigators believe that the arrest of the six suspects and their ring leader is a breakthrough by the police who have broken the militant group's network.

The sources said that the CID police were looking into the possibility of their involvement in the bombings at the US consulate, Hotel Sheraton, Bible Society and Macedonian honorary consulate as well as other terrorist activities elsewhere in the city.

On April 12, police had arrested six Harkat activists in Manzoor Colony and recovered weapons from their possession. On April 6, the police had announced arrest of nine other activists of the same group during raids in Gulistan-i-Jauhar and Boating Basin areas.