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Pakistan captures top militant after shootout

AFP, Islamabad
Pakistani police yesterday quizzed a leading al-Qaeda-linked militant who was caught after a bloody shootout, while three suspected rebels and two troops died in other violence, officials said.
Qasim Toori, a member of the banned extremist group Jundullah (Army of God), was hit in the foot and arrested after a gun battle in the southern city of Karachi late Tuesday, Sindh province home minister Akhtar Zamin said.
Toori was one of Pakistan's most wanted men because of his involvement in two bombings in 2004, one targeting the top army general in Karachi and the other aimed at an American cultural centre, officials said.
The interior ministry and police had announced on Tuesday that Toori was among the three militants and two policemen killed in the firefight — but Zamin said that there had been confusion over the identities of the dead.
"QasimToori is alive. He is in our ^ustody and facing serious charges," Zamin told AFP.
He said the militants were "planning for a big attack in the city as is evident from the C4 plastic explosives and arms seized during the raid."
Toori, a former policeman, was wanted for a June 2004 gun attack on Karachi Corps Commander General Ahsan Saleem Hayat, which left 11 people dead, security officials said. Hayat survived. Eleven Jundullah activists were sentenced to death in 2006 for the attack
Toori was also sought for a bomb attack the previous month outside the privately-run Pakistan American Cultural Center in Karachi in wliich a guard died.
Members of Jundullah were trained in camps run by al-Qaeda in the tribal district of South Waziristan bordering Afghanistan, where Pakistan's army is currently fighting against Islamic extremists, security officials said.
South Waziristan is the alleged stronghold of Islamist warlord Baitullah Mehsud, who is accused by Pakistan and the United States of masterminding last month's assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.
In the neighbouring tribal region of North Waziristan, two troops were killed early yesterday when ' pro-Taliban militants fired rockets at their checkpost near the town of Razmak, security officials said.
On Monday a missile strike in North Waziristan killed 12 suspected militants, officials said.
Separately yesterday a blast ripped through a house in the northwestern city of Peshawar, which adjoins the tribal belt, killing three suspected militants, police said.
The three were probably handling explosives, police official Muhammad Tahir Khan told AFP. The men, between 20 to 30 years old, were suspected of preparing for suicide attacks, another police official said.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan has been hit by a wave of violence sparked by Benazir murder, wliich has raised international concerns about security ahead of February 18 elections.
The US State Department said Ttiesday it expected "some" fraud in the elections and called on all groups, including international monitors, to keep a tight watch over the landmark event.