ISLAMABAD, Sept 29: Law-enforcement agents acting on information from a captured militant leader have arrested two would-be suicide bombers as they made last-minute preparations for attacks, a security official said on Thursday.

The extremists were seized from a house in Rawalpindi hours after Saturday’s arrest of Asif Choto, chief of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi.

“Information gleaned from Choto led us to the timely arrest of the two men just as they were preparing to launch the attacks,” the official told AFP.

Police said Asif, 28, was one of the country’s most wanted militants and had masterminded suicide attacks that killed scores of Shias.

“His arrest will bring a halt to sectarian killings till the militants regroup,” a top police investigator in Karachi, Farooq Awan, said.

The security official said one of the bombers was due to blow himself up on the same day as he was arrested. “His target was a close relative of the leader of a main Shia party,” he said.

The second was to attack a Shia congregation this week at the community’s main religious school in Lahore, he said.

The official said agents seized two suicide jackets and some arms and ammunition from the house where the bombers were staying, and arrested another senior sectarian militant, Rashid alias Shahid Satti.

Asif had groomed both of the bombers, who hailed from Gilgit, officials said. Neither of them was named.

Security operatives also raided a neighbouring house and took into custody another important Lashkar-i-Jhangvi figure, Samundar Gul, and a sixth militant, the official said.

The government has so far failed to confirm the arrests, apparently to avoid legal procedures under which suspects must appear before a court within 24 hours of being arrested.

Investigator Awan said Asif’s name featured near the top of the ‘red book’ of the country’s most wanted militants, and that he carried a bounty of Rs2.5 million on his head.

Asif, whose real name was Mohammad Rizwan, oversaw 18 to 20 sectarian killings and bomb blasts in Karachi, Mr Awan added. He was also the author of a special guidebook for Lashkar activists, telling them how to carry out attacks and what to do if they were arrested. A copy of the guidebook was seized by police last year during a raid on a militant hideout.

“Choto motivated suicide bombers and spent a few days with each bomber before sending him on his mission,” Mr Awan said.

—AFP