KARACHI, Feb. 8: In a pre-dawn raid on Tuesday, police arrested four activists of two banned militant organizations from the Railway Colony and seized a sizable quantity of explosives from their possession.

DIG Investigation Manzoor Ahmed Mughal told Dawn that of the four suspects three belonged to Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi while the fourth was an activist of the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi.

"The four were working as a group and were planning a major terrorist strike in the city. Though they are still being interrogated, information so far extracted from them suggests that Mohammad Asghar was planning to blow himself up as a suicide bomber in some mosque or Imambargah," the DIG added. Asghar is aged 30.

The four have been identified as Mohsin alias Umar, Saeed Umar, Zahid alias Motu and Mohammad Asghar. However, their three accomplices, Qari Zafar, Qari Shahzad and Kashif escaped. The raiding party headed by DSP Gul Hameed Samoo seized 18 kg of explosive material in addition to detonators and other accessories.

Sources in the police department said that Qari Zafar was the ring leader of the present set-up of the Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi. Investigators believe that Qari Zafar also had links with the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

DIG Manzoor Mughal said that the raid was conducted on the basis of intelligence reports of a major terrorist strike before or during the month of Muharram. However, two young girls who according to police, were prepared for suicide bombings are still at large and so far police had failed to trace their whereabouts.

The girls are relatives of Gul Hasan, the alleged mastermind of two suicide bombings in two Shia mosques in the city in May 2004.

The arrested suspects are associates of Sharib Arsalan Faruqi who was arrested in September 2002 from Karachi. Sharib was involved in the US consulate and Sheraton bombings, Manzoor Mughal added.