KARACHI, June 14: Dawood Badini, allegedly involved in several terrorist attacks in Balochistan and elsewhere, has been arrested, says Director-General of Pakistan Rangers (Sindh), Maj- Gen Javed Zia.

Speaking at a news conference at the Rangers' headquarters here on Monday. He said that Dawood Badini, was arrested after law-enforcement agencies conducted a coordinated raid on a house in the Federal 'B' Area between the night of June 12 and 13.

The Balochistan government had offered a bounty of Rs2 million for his arrest. He said that during preliminary interrogation, Dawood Badini, said to be an important leader of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi organization, had confessed to his involvement in various sabotage activities.

He said that Dawood Badini had planned the attack on the vehicle of the Balochistan police, carrying recruits. At least 12 police recruits had been killed in the attack on June 8, 2003.

On July 4, 2003, he had planned a suicide attack on an imambargah in Quetta involving three suicide attackers, killing 51 persons. On March 2, 2004, Dawood Badini had planned the firing incident on the Ashura procession in Quetta city in which two suicide attackers were involved and 46 mourners had been killed in the attack, the DG Rangers said.

The saboteur, he said, was also involved in the planning of attack on the director-general of the National Database and Registration Authority on Aug 9, 2002, in which Bartar Hussain Naqvi was injured. The DG Rangers said that such criminals would be brought to book.

PPI adds: Dawood Badini's father, Maulvi Amir Hamza, patronized the outlawed outfit of the Sipah Sahaba. He had died in January 2001. It was learnt that Dawood Badini joined the defunct Lashkar-i-Jangvi in 1999 and had allegedly been involved in terrorist activities since then. After the Balochistan police and other law enforcement agencies tightened their noose around him, he fled to Karachi.