Islamabad, May 17: Amid mounting pressure from the US to crack down on militants in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden, the Pakistani military today announced the arrest of al-Qaeda operative Muhammad Ali Qasim Yaqub in Karachi.
 Yaqub, identified by the military as a Yemeni national who used the alias Abu Sohaib Al-Makki, was arrested by security agencies, the military said in a statement.
 According to preliminary investigations, he was a "senior al-Qaeda operative" working directly under the group’s leaders along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. "The arrest of Al-Makki is a major development in unravelling the al-Qaeda network operating in the region," the statement said.
 The military did not say when Yaqub was arrested. The announcement came a day after US Senator John Kerry – sent to Islamabad as a special emissary by the Obama administration to address tensions sparked by the killing of bin Laden. Kerry, who reportedly carried a list of actions to be taken by Pakistan to address US concerns, said Islamabad should flush out militants and take action against "sanctuaries" in Pakistani territory from which militants were attacking US and allied forces in Afghanistan.
 Diplomatic sources told PTI it was too early to conclude that Pakistani authorities had initiated a crackdown on al-Qaeda in the wake of the killing of bin Laden during a raid by US commandos in Abbottabad on May 2.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 17 May 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 17 May 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 18 May 2011 00:00:00 IST