Source: AFP

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan was on high alert as Shiites prepared to observe the Muslim festival of Ashura, a day after security officials said they had foiled plots aimed at causing massive loss of life.

This year’s commemorations come amid widespread militancy and unrest across Pakistan, which Saturday saw the arrest of Sunni extremists intent on targeting worshippers, security officials said.

Ceremonies for Ashura, which marks the death of the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson in the seventh century, were set to take place across the country in an annual event often hit by sectarian violence.

A combination of suicide bombs and cyanide poisoning had planned to kill Shiites celebrating Ashura across the nation, security officials said.

Police on Friday arrested a teenager who was allegedly part of a five-man squad in the plot to kill opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last month, and who they said had been planning an attack during Sunday’s commemorations.

The suspect, 15-year-old Aitezaz Shah, was arrested in the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan on Friday, security officials said on condition of anonymity.

Shah told interrogators he had been part of a back-up team of three bombers tasked with killing two-time former premier Bhutto if the original December 27 attack by two men had failed, the officials said.

Interior ministry spokesman Iqbal Cheema did not confirm the arrest.

A second suicide bomber was among five heavily armed militants, all belonging to Sunni extremist groups, seized in Karachi who also planned to use cyanide powder to poison water provided during the ceremonies.

They were planning to launch an attack Sunday on the Ashura festival in the southern port city, provincial police chief Azhar Farooqi said.

“The aim was to cause widespread human losses,” Farooqi said of the plot, in which three others were detained in the nearby city of Hyderabad.

Police recovered six kilogrammes of explosives to be placed in the suicide bomber’s jacket, three hand grenades, six detonators, two pistols and two kilogrammes of pellets, Farooqi said.

His officers also recovered 500 grammes of cyanide, which the extremists had planned to mix with the water distributed at kiosks established specially during Ashura.

The group’s leader, Mohammad Ejaz from Pakistani Kashmir, belonged to the outlawed Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami, while others were members of banned militant outfits Harkatul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammad, Farooqi said.

In the latest religious violence to hit the country, a gun and suicide attack on a Shiite mosque on Thursday killed 10 people.

Pakistani security officials said they believed militants from a Sunni extremist group linked to Al-Qaeda were behind the attack.

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Tags: al qaeda, Ashura, Extremists, Militants, Muharram, Shiite, Sunni