Bus Bombing Kills 2 in Pakistan

A bomb ripped through a passenger bus in southern Pakistan on Saturday, killing two people and injuring 18 just hours after police announced that they had quashed a terrorist plot by arresting four Islamic militants armed with grenades.

There was no claim of responsibility for the explosion aboard the local bus in Hyderabad, about 100 miles north of Karachi. It was the second bus bombing in as many months in Hyderabad, where attacks are fueled largely by ethnic and religious conflict.

In Karachi, police announced earlier Saturday that four suspects arrested late Friday had been planning to carry out suicide attacks. Pakistan has been hit by at least 12 such attacks or plots this year.

Police said the men said they had been recruited by two members of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network. All four suspects belonged to the outlawed Islamic group Jaish-e-Mohammed and sought to buy high-powered explosives.

“We swiftly took action ... and were able to arrest all four terrorists with three hand grenades,” said Shafi Rind, divisional police officer in eastern Karachi.

Police acted on a tip to collar the four as they headed toward a major street where they allegedly were planning to blow up a bridge.

They told police that they were recruited more than two months ago by two men from a Middle Eastern country. They said they were given $180 to purchase explosives in remote tribal regions, where such weapons are readily available.

Police did not disclose the identities of the alleged recruiters or their nationalities.

The four Pakistani suspects -- identified as Riaz Uddin, Aziz Mubarak, Mohammed Kamran and Abdul Rehman -- said they carried out several robberies to get money to buy more explosives and weapons. In recent months, they said, their gang stole $3,350.

A court ordered them held without bail. A new anti-terrorism law permits authorities in Pakistan to hold suspected terrorists for one year without filing charges.

Pakistan outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammed in January. The United States has declared it a terrorist organization.

But the head of the group, Maulana Masood Azhar, was ordered released from house arrest Dec. 14. Dozens of members of militant Islamic groups have been freed from jail in Pakistan in recent weeks, many of them in the regions governed by Islamic conservatives near the Afghan border.