In a pre-emptive operation, Saudi security forces killed two terrorists and arrested two others, including a Pakistani woman, in the coastal city of Jeddah, taking the number of Pakistanis detained on terror charges in the kingdom to 69.
"Two terrorists in Al-Harazat District, in south east Jeddah, were killed after they blew themselves up after refusing to surrender to police calls on Saturday," Arab News reported, quoting the Interior Ministry spokesperson.
He said the authorities arrested another two, a husband and his Pakistani wife, from an apartment after a tip-off.
With the arrest of the Pakistani woman, identified as 19-year-old Fatima Ramadan Balochi Murad, the number of Pakistanis arrested on terror charges has gone up to 69.
Citing security sources, the paper said the authorities got information on the presence of a group of terrorists at a house in Al-Harazat District. After an investigation, the residents of the house turned out to have a link to another terrorist living in Naseem District, who used to come to the house together with his wife.
"The person also turned out to be a former terrorist who was imprisoned for eight years but released after less than two years. He was the one who rented the house in Al-Harazat at least two months ago, to be used as a hideout for the terrorist cell; he used his wife in an attempt to avoid the landlord and neighbours becoming suspicious," the paper said.
The security forces cordoned off the two hideouts and arrested the first person, Saudi citizen Husam bin Salic bin Samran Al-Juhani with his Pakistani wife in their apartment in Naseem district.
After searching the house, the security forces found a ready-to-use explosive belt, a locally-made bomb, together with a machine gun with live ammunition.
The forces also cordoned off a house in Al-Harazat before dawn prayer on Saturday. The forces asked the terrorists to surrender but they started firing.
When the security forces tried to storm the house, the terrorists detonated the explosive belts they were wearing, killing themselves and causing extensive damage to the house.
Quoting the spokesman of the Interior Ministry Maj Gen Mansour Al-Turki, the paper said the hideout at Al-Harazat was used as a lab for making explosive belts and bombs.
He said the man arrested at the second hideout, in Naseem district, was linked to those in the Al-Harazat property.
Security authorities are still collecting evidence from the two locations and conducting investigations with the arrested persons. All details and identities of the terrorists will be announced later, Al-Turki said.
Last July, Pakistani terrorist Abdullah Qalzar Khan blew himself up near Solaiman Fakeih Hospital in Jeddah.
The security authorities arrested 49 Pakistani residents and put them under interrogation since the bombing in July, Saudi Gazette reported.
A terror plot - involving two Pakistanis Solaiman Arab Deen and Farman Naqshaband Khan, was foiled last October here.
In a recent statement, the Interior Ministry said that 5,085 terror suspects from 40 countries are in detention.
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