Pat Dollard | Young Americans

KARACHI (Reuters) - Pakistani police said on Saturday they had averted a disaster with the arrest of five Al Qaeda militants planning to attack Shi’ite Muslim processions with cyanide and suicide bombs.

The arrests late on Friday in the southern city of Karachi came as minority Shi’ite Muslims across Pakistan gathered for religious commemorations that have in recent years drawn attacks from Sunni Muslim militants.

“Their arrest has averted a big disaster … but the threat of suicide attacks is still there,” provincial police chief Azhar Ali Farooqi told a news conference.

The five militants, one of whom was preparing to become a suicide bomber, belonged to different Sunni Muslim militant groups and were picked up in raids in different parts of the city, Farooqi said.

“They planned to carry out suicide and grenade attacks on processions,” he said.

Police seized 6 kg (13.2 lb) of explosives for use in suicide jackets, 2 kg (4.4 lb) ball bearings, one kg (2.2 lb) of nails, detonators, three hand grenades and two pistols.

Police also seized 500 grams (17 oz) of cyanide that Farooqi said was going to be used to poison drinks handed out to people taking part in the Shi’ite processions.

Sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi’ite sects flares every year during the Muslim month of Moharram, which marks a period of mourning for Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad.

Killed in a battle in AD 680 in Kerbala, a city in modern day Iraq, Imam Hussein is revered by Shi’ites, who make up about 15 percent of Pakistan’s 160 million people.

Security forces are on high alert for violence this weekend when many Shi’ites beat themselves into a frenzy of grief during processions.

Ordinary Pakistanis and police say sectarianism is being used as a cover by shadowy groups intent on creating chaos.

Separately, security forces have arrested a suspected teenaged suicide bomber, Ismail Khan, in the northwestern city of Dera. Security officials said he was on his way to Karachi to attack Shi’ite processions.

But senior security officials denied a report that the 15-year-old boy had confessed to being part of a five-member team that attacked and killed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on December 27. Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz said the report was a rumor.

(Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony; Editing by Robert Birsel and Bill Tarrant)

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