The forces arrested an Al-Qaeda operative who is the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, and had a one million dollar reward on his head, he said.

Mohammad, one of the chief planners of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, was arrested in Pakistan in March 2003 in a dramatic raid from the garrison city of Rawalpindi near Islamabad.

The minister identified his nephew as Musabir Urumchi.

"Our security forces have arrested an eight member gang of foreign Al-Qaeda operatives for their involvement in acts of terrorism in Pakistan, including Thursday's attack on the Corps Commander's convoy in Karachi," Hayat told AFP.

The attack on the convoy of Lieutenant General Ahsan Saleem Hayat left seven soldiers, three policemen and a passer-by dead. The General escaped unhurt.

"These militants are of Central Asian origin and their ring leader was Ataullah," the Interior Minister said.

The ring leader who goes by one name is an Uzbek national, he said.

The group was trained in Shakai in the tribal region of South Waziristan, he said. "The arrest of the gang is a phenomenal breakthrough for us."

Hayat did not disclose the circumstances under which the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was arrested nor did he specify the location.

He said the eight arrested called themselves the Jandalla group.

"Our investigations have established that this eight-member gang was involved in most acts of terrorism in Karachi and Quetta," the capital of Baluchistan province in southwestern Pakistan, he said.

WAR.WIRE