KARACHI PUT ON ALERT AGAINST SUICIDE BOMBERS

July 30, 2004 - (Reuters) Security forces in Pakistan's volatile port city of Karachi have been put on high alert because of fears of suicide attacks by Islamic militants on mosques during Friday prayers.

Karachi police chief Tariq Jamil said intelligence agencies feared the banned extremist Sunni Muslim group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was planning suicide bomb attacks on Shi'ite mosques.

"The police are on high alert and we have deployed extra force around mosques and Imambarghas (Shi'ite Muslim mosques) in the city," Jamil told Reuters.

The militant group might use women as suicide bombers in possible attacks, police and paramilitary were also checking vehicles for explosives, Jamil said.

In May, more than 60 people, mostly Shi'ite Muslims, were killed and 150 wounded in suicide attacks on Shi'ite mosques in Karachi.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is one of the most feared of Pakistan's underground militant groups and has links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

The group has been implicated in attacks on Western targets in Karachi, including the kidnap and murder of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.

It has carried out dozens of deadly attacks on Pakistan's minority Shi'ite community.

A statement issued by the provincial Sindh government on Thursday warned that the militants were expected to use "explosive filled brief cases, water coolers or lunch boxes and for this purpose they may utilize the services of women as well."

From: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5825689