Plot to blow-up Pakistani PM’s rally foiled
By IANSTuesday, November 30, 2010
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani security officials have arrested two militants and unearthed a plot to carry out a bomb blast at a public rally of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani in Sukhur district of Sindh province, media reports said Wednesday.
The prime minister addressed several gatherings of people and party workers in the country Tuesday to mark the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party’s 44th foundation day. He reached Sukhur in the evening.
“Some terrorists belonging to a banned militant outfit had plotted to sabotage the rally with explosives and time devices,” Dunya TV reported.
Police, acting on a tip off, intercepted a goods truck that was coming from Peshawar. “Upon searching the truck, huge cache of arms including at least 12 Kalashnikovs and over three thousand bullets were recovered,” the channel added.
An official, on condition of anonymity, said that two suspected militants were arrested in the operation.
“They have revealed in the initial interrogation that the plan was to target the public rally of the Prime Minister,” the official said.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik last week had confirmed arrest of two militants from Islamabad who wanted to carry out suicide bombings at the parliament and other sensitive buildings besides targeting important personalities.
Thousands of people have been killed in the past couple of years in various terrorist activities carried out in retaliation to the massive crackdown launched by the Pakistani military in the country’s troubled northwestern tribal region.
