Islam Militants Nabbed In Bus Bombing

Dozens of suspected members of outlawed Islamic militant groups were arrested Thursday as U.S. and French investigators joined Pakistanis in looking for possible links between al Qaeda terrorists and a bombing that killed 14 people, including 11 French engineers.

A top Interior Ministry official, Tasneem Noorani, said "a number" of activists belonging to groups banned by the military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, last January have been arrested in cities across the country.

"We are expecting more arrests as the raids are still in progress," he said, declining to elaborate.

However, a senior intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least 50 suspected members of Jaish-e-Mohammed, Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and other groups have been arrested.

Most of the arrests, he said, were made in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, the country's biggest with more than half the population.

Many Islamic militants inside Pakistan have close links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization. They have vowed revenge for Musharraf's banning of five militant groups after he abandoned Afghanistan's Taliban regime and sided with the United States in its anti-terrorism campaign post-Sept. 11.

In the port city of Karachi, three FBI agents spent 90 minutes sifting through the twisted charred hulk of a Pakistan Navy shuttle bus blown apart Wednesday by what Pakistani police believe was a suicide bomber in a nearby car.

"This act of international terrorism has to be met with full force," said President Pervez Musharraf said on state television Wednesday "My government has the complete resolve for meeting this threat."

French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, who arrived Thursday to consult with Pakistani officials in the wake of the attack, said French investigators were already in Pakistan helping with the investigation as well.

Twelve French naval workers wounded in the attack as well as the bodies of their colleagues were flown back to France on a German military jet. They were in Pakistan to help with construction of a French submarine bought by the Pakistani Navy — work that Alliot-Marie said would continue despite the attack.

The wounded men were ferried in a fleet of ambulances with a team of German and French doctors to Karachi airport where a German Airbus A310 aircraft, which that had flown from Berlin, took off for the eight-hour flight to Paris.

While stressing it was too early to say who was behind the bombing, the French minister said the bombing was "part of the larger terrorist movement against which the international coalition is fighting."

She praised Musharraf for his "brave choice" to join the U.S.-led war on terrorism after Sept. 11, and said Wednesday's attack only strengthened France's resolve.

"We have to fight terrorism till it's eliminated," she said.

Alliot-Marie was flanked by scores of heavily armed Pakistan Naval Police as she visited the wounded French engineers at the Aga Khan hospital in the heart of Karachi before their departure.

Musharraf had ordered his security forces on maximum alert. Police also were erecting cement barricades on the roads outside luxury hotels in the area to try to prevent another attack.

Roads outside the U.S. Consulate were closed to public traffic as were roads leading to the residence of the U.S. Consul General.

President Bush condemned the deaths as "terrorist murders" and said the bombing "underscores the dangers all our citizens and societies continue to face from such attacks, and strengthens our resolve to continue working together to fight terrorism at home and abroad."

Musharraf called the bombing an "act of international terrorism" and convened an emergency national security council meeting Wednesday. An interior ministry official said intelligence agencies suggested "external elements" might have been involved: either al Qaeda and Taliban or agents of Pakistan's eastern neighbor and archrival, India.

Musharraf ordered heightened security along the border with Afghanistan, where U.S.-led coalition forces are trying to hunt down remaining al Qaeda and Taliban in mountain hideouts.

"We think this bombing was the result of Pakistan's support for the international community in the war against terrorism," Information Minister Nisar Memon said, adding that Pakistan would persist in its efforts. "We have taken more measures to combat terrorism."

Wednesday's attack was the third time foreigners in Pakistan have been targeted this year, after the kidnap and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl in January and a grenade attack on a church used by foreigners in Islamabad in March.

The French victims were engineers at France's state-owned naval construction service who were building a second Agosta submarine Pakistan purchased from France in 1994.

Insisting the work would continue, Alliot-Marie said she had discussed with Pakistani officials "new measures" to ensure the safety of French personnel. "Putting all the people in the same place proved not good," she said.

She said the wounded flying to Paris were suffering from shock as well and would be transferred to specialized hospitals. "It's better for them to be closer to their families," she said.