ISLAMABAD, Aug 14: Security agencies have arrested two terrorism suspects, including an Afghan national, who are believed to be involved in an assassination attempt on Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz last month that left nine people dead , well-placed sources told Dawn on Saturday.

A source said that the accused were arrested in separate raids conducted in eastern Punjab on Friday night. The suspects were identified as Qari Noor Mohammed, an Afghan who allegedly coordinated the attack, and Mohammed Imran, a local man.

The source said that one of the suspects, Imran, was a member of the outlawed extremist group Jaish-i-Mohammed. He was seen at the place where the assassination attempt on Mr Aziz was made.

When contacted, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat confirmed the fresh arrests, saying the accused had hatched a terrorism plan for mass-scale destruction on the occasion of the Independence Day.

"Our intelligence agencies preempted a country-wide terrorist plot for mass-scale destruction in different cities of the country," he added.

However, the interior minister ruled out the links of the accused with the assassination attempts on prime minister-designate Shaukat Aziz. "These suspects have no link with assassination attempts," he said.

Replying to a question about the number and identity of the arrested suspects, the minister said that because of security reasons, he could not disclose that who and how many they were and from where they were picked up.

The minister denied the reports that the arrested suspects had planned another attack on prime minister-designate.

The arrest of two suspects is stated to be the latest in an on-going crackdown being conducted by the security personnel to hunt top leaders of Al Qaeda hierarchy.

Mr Aziz escaped unharmed from the July 30 attack in Fateh Jang, where he went to attend a public meeting in connection with by-election on a National Assembly seat scheduled to be held on Aug 18.

Meanwhile, a senior minister told Dawn that some intelligence agencies personnel at a reception hosted by President Gen Pervez Musharraf in the President House on Friday night were talking about the arrest of terror suspects and unearthing of a country-wide sabotage plan.

He said that the plans of targeted attacks on important personalities were foiled by the law-enforcement agencies.