Pakistani security forces may have averted a major terrorist attack with the arrest of a suspected militant with over three dozen bombs in Zhob district of the restive Balochistan province on the Afghan border.The Frontier Corps personnel arrested the militant at the Sambaza check post on the Pakistan-Afghan border while he was travelling to Zhob in a bus, official sources said.
"The suspected militant was coming from Wana carrying 37 bombs," unidentified sources were quoted as saying by the Dawn daily. The terror suspect was handed over to agencies concerned for interrogation.
Security forces arrested three suspected Al Qaeda [Images] militants on the porous Pakistan-Iran border while trying to enter Balochistan on June 29. The infiltrators, including two Iraqis and one Iranian, were trying to enter the Taftan area, the border authorities said.
Security agencies arrested former Taliban defence minister Mullah Obaidullah Akhund from a hotel in Quetta in March.
Pakistan's northern area bordering Afghanistan has been a haven for Islamist militants who have been engaged in violent activities in different parts of the world, including Afghanistan, Chechnya, China and India.
Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, has deployed at least 90,000 troops in its northwestern tribal areas to flush out remnants of the Al Qaeda and Taliban militants, and their local supporters.
Efforts to flush them out of their hideouts in the tribal areas, where they have received patronage from the local warlords, has put them in direct conflict with the Pakistan Army, which has suffered heavy losses while engaging the militants.
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