KARACHI, July 12: Pakistani authorities have arrested an alleged financial adviser of Osama bin Laden and two other militants believed to be from his Al Qaeda terror network, a police intelligence officer said on Friday.

“Three Al Qaeda men have been arrested here including Sheikh Ahmed Saleem, who was acting as a financial adviser of Osama in Pakistan,” the officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The three were arrested during an overnight raid on a suburban apartment in Karachi.

Saleem, a Sudan national, apparently fled Afghanistan for Pakistan after the US-led military campaign began last October, the officer said.

The arrests were based on information gleaned from interrogations of some of the scores of local militants who have been rounded up since the June 14 suicide car-bomb blast outside the US consulate.

Police suspect that Al Qaeda fugitives from Afghanistan have teamed up with militant groups here to carry out terror attacks against western targets in Pakistan.—AFP