Pakistani authorities have arrested an alleged financial adviser of Osama bin Laden and two other militants believed to be from his al-Qaeda network.
"Three al-Qaeda men have been arrested here including Sheikh Ahmed Saleem, who was acting as a financial adviser of bin Laden in Pakistan," a police intelligence officer said.
The three were arrested during an overnight raid on a suburban apartment in the commercial port city of Karachi.
Saleem, a Sudan national, apparently fled Afghanistan for Pakistan after the US-led military campaign began last October, the officer said.
The arrests were the result of interrogation of some of the scores of local militants who have been rounded up since the June 14th suicide car bomb blast outside the US consulate.
Police suspect that al-Qaeda fugitives from Afghanistan have teamed up with local militant groups to carry out terror attacks against western targets in Pakistan.
Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider has said authorities had evidence that al-Qaeda had financed the US consulate blast, which killed 12 Pakistanis.
Three men from the Islamic militant group Harkatul Mujahedin al-Alaami were arrested on Monday in connection with the consulate blast.
President Pervez Musharraf has said more than 300 al-Qaeda operatives have been arrested in Pakistan since December.
AFP