Pakistan says it arrested an al-Qaida leader who was a close aide to Osama bin Laden

LAHORE, Pakistan — Pakistan counterterrorism police have arrested an al-Qaida leader who was a close aide to Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, officials said Friday.

Deputy inspector general of police Usman Gondal identified the man as Amin ul Haq and said he was nabbed by the Counter-Terrorism Department in Punjab province after a yearslong hunt. The arrest foiled possible attacks being planned by Haq in the province, Gondal said at a news conference in Lahore.

Haq’s name is included in a U.N. sanctions list of people linked to al-Qaida. An Afghan, he was accused of working as a financer for al-Qaida and supplying arms to insurgents. Gondal said he was arrested in a town near Jhelum city, but it was unclear exactly when the arrest was made.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Pakistan arrested and turned over several top al-Qaida officials to the U.S. They included bin Laden deputies Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh and Abu Zubaydah. Pakistan’s support for the U.S. has angered militants, who since then have attacked security forces and civilians.

On Friday, two people were killed in a roadside bombing in South Waziristan, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in the northwest bordering Afghanistan, local authorities said.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in violence since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021. Most of the attacks have been blamed on the Pakistani Taliban, who are also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. They are a separate group but an ally of the Afghan Taliban.

Earlier this week, insurgents killed eight soldiers when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into the outer wall of an army housing complex in Bannu, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Ten insurgents were killed by troops after the attack.

On Friday, thousands of residents carried white flags symbolizing peace in a rally in Bannu demanding peace in the region. However, unidentified gunmen opened fire at the rally, killing three people and wounding two dozen others, police said. It was unclear who was responsible, and police said they were trying to control the situation.

___

Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Asim Tanveer in Multan, Pakistan, and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this story.