Terrorist arrested for bombing of U.S. Consulate

KARACHI, Pakistan -- A member of an extremist group linked to al-Qaida was arrested Wednesday for allegedly financing and planning the June car-bombing at the U.S. Consulate that killed 12 people, officials said.

Police and Interior Ministry officials, speaking anonymously, identified the suspect as Mohammed Ashraf, treasurer of the Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen al-Almi, whose two top leaders were arrested this month and who police say have confessed to roles in the June 14 car-bombing in Karachi.

Fifty people were injured.

The group and its leaders also are suspected in the May 8 suicide bombing at the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi. Eleven French engineers and three other people, including the bomber, were killed.

Ashraf was among the group that planned the consulate attack, in which all the victims were Pakistanis, police said.

"Ashraf also provided money for the purchase of explosive material to carry out the attack on U.S. consulate in Karachi," an Interior Ministry official in Islamabad said.

Ashraf also confessed his role in scores of terrorist acts, including a February rocket attack on the Karachi airport, police said.

The state-run news agency Associated Press of Pakistan reported that Ashraf disclosed names of other group members involved in planning the attack. They included Mohammed Imran, chief of Harkatul-ul-Mujahedeen al-Almi, and Mohammed Hanif.

Imran and Hanif, both arrested this month, also allegedly conspired to kill President Gen. Pervez Musharraf during his April visit to the violence-ridden city.

Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen al-Almi, a splinter group of Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen, or Movement of Holy Warriors, worked closely with al-Qaida in Afghanistan before the collapse of Taliban rule last year.