AIRLINK 189.64 Decreased By ▼ -7.01 (-3.56%)
BOP 10.09 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.49%)
CNERGY 6.68 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.15%)
FCCL 34.14 Increased By ▲ 1.12 (3.39%)
FFL 17.09 Increased By ▲ 0.44 (2.64%)
FLYNG 23.83 Increased By ▲ 1.38 (6.15%)
HUBC 126.05 Decreased By ▼ -1.24 (-0.97%)
HUMNL 13.79 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-0.79%)
KEL 4.77 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.21%)
KOSM 6.58 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (3.3%)
MLCF 43.28 Increased By ▲ 1.06 (2.51%)
OGDC 224.96 Increased By ▲ 11.93 (5.6%)
PACE 7.38 Increased By ▲ 0.37 (5.28%)
PAEL 41.74 Increased By ▲ 0.87 (2.13%)
PIAHCLA 17.19 Increased By ▲ 0.37 (2.2%)
PIBTL 8.41 Increased By ▲ 0.12 (1.45%)
POWER 9.05 Increased By ▲ 0.23 (2.61%)
PPL 193.09 Increased By ▲ 9.52 (5.19%)
PRL 37.34 Decreased By ▼ -0.93 (-2.43%)
PTC 24.02 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.21%)
SEARL 94.54 Decreased By ▼ -0.57 (-0.6%)
SILK 0.99 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-1%)
SSGC 39.93 Decreased By ▼ -0.38 (-0.94%)
SYM 17.77 Decreased By ▼ -0.44 (-2.42%)
TELE 8.66 Decreased By ▼ -0.07 (-0.8%)
TPLP 12.39 Increased By ▲ 0.18 (1.47%)
TRG 62.65 Decreased By ▼ -1.71 (-2.66%)
WAVESAPP 10.28 Decreased By ▼ -0.16 (-1.53%)
WTL 1.75 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-2.23%)
YOUW 3.97 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.75%)
BR100 11,814 Increased By 90.4 (0.77%)
BR30 36,234 Increased By 874.6 (2.47%)
KSE100 113,247 Increased By 609 (0.54%)
KSE30 35,712 Increased By 253.6 (0.72%)

Saudi authorities on Friday hailed a major blow against al Qaeda militants who spurned their conditional amnesty offer, announcing the capture of one of the kingdom's most wanted suspects.
The arrest of Fares al-Zahrani late Thursday came six weeks after security forces killed local al Qaeda commander, Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, following attacks on Western expatriates in the kingdom claimed by al Qaeda affiliates.
"Security forces... were able on Thursday evening to capture one of the heads of strife and an advocate of takfeer and bombings ... Fares bin Ahmed bin Shwail al-Zahrani," said an overnight interior ministry statement.
"Takfeer" means branding other Muslims as infidels in order to legitimise violence against them.
A ministry official said another person was arrested along with Zahrani, but his identity would not be disclosed "for the sake of the (national) interest."
Security forces were able to "prevent the two men from using the weapons they were carrying and capture them alive without anyone being hurt," the official said.
He said Zahrani had "questioned the nation's ulema (clergy)" and incited militants to "kill security forces."
The official did not say where Zahrani, a top figure on a 26-strong list of most-wanted militants, was arrested.
But the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya satellite news channel said Zahrani surrendered to security forces "without putting up any resistance" in a park in the south-western region of Abha after a chase lasting several hours.
Like the majority of fellow suspects on the government's most-wanted list, Zahrani, believed to be in his early 30s, spurned a one-month amnesty offered to Islamic militants by King Fahd on June 23.
Zahrani's capture brings down to 11 the number of militants on the most-wanted list still at large.
The others have been killed in clashes with security forces or turned themselves in to authorities since the list was issued last December.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2004

Comments

Comments are closed.