QUETTA: Pakistan has arrested at least three Navy officers for helping militants to attack a naval yard in Karachi in a strike that left a sailor and three attackers dead, officials said yesterday.
Militants tried to storm the facility in the sprawling, violent city of Karachi, Pakistan’s only major port, last Saturday, though the authorities only released news of it some days later.
Al Qaeda’s new South Asia branch on Thursday claimed responsibility for the raid, saying former military officers had helped in the attack.
The Pakistani Taliban also claimed to be behind the attack and said they had inside help.
The arrests came in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s restive, desolate southwestern province of Baluchistan, an intelligence source said.
“Three naval officials including two low-grade officers were arrested from Quetta and were taken to Karachi for further investigation,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“We intercepted a car arriving from Karachi and arrested three officers suspected to be involved in the dockyard attack.”
A senior minister in the Baluchistan provincial government confirmed the arrests, again on condition of anonymity.
“The intelligence officials are investigating why they fled to Quetta -- whether they wanted to cross the border into Afghanistan or hide in Baluchistan,” he said.
Another intelligence official in Islamabad said more arrests were likely, and said claims of responsibility for the attack should be treated with caution.
“The claims for the raid are not worthy to be trusted at this stage. We expect that the investigations will lead to a major breakthrough very soon,” he said.
It was the first attack claimed by Al Qaeda’s new South Asia wing, whose creation was announced by chief Ayman Al Zawahiri last week.
The claims, made on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York, will likely add to concerns about extremist infiltration of the Pakistani military’s ranks after the Taliban, when also claiming the attack, said they had received inside help.
The Al Qaeda group claimed that the target of the raid was a ‘US supply ship’ and said the dead attackers included former Pakistan navy officers.
It was not immediately possible to confirm whether a US ship was present at the port. Militant groups in the region often exaggerate claims about attacks.
Al Qaeda is a global militant Islamist and Wahhabist organisation founded by Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam and several other militants, at some point between August 1988 and late 1989, with origins traceable to the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Wahhabi Muslim movement calling for global jihad and a strict interpretation of sharia law. AFP
