ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan said its security forces killed an Al-Qaeda kingpin allegedly behind an assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf and indicted in the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl.
"I can confirm that Amjad Farooqi has been killed in an encounter with security forces and we have also arrested three important terror suspects," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told AFP.
"It is yet another success of Pakistani intelligence fighting against terrorism," he said by telephone from Amsterdam where he is accompanying President Musharraf.
"We will disclose the identity of his accomplices in few days. They are all Pakistanis and very important suspects," the minister said.
Farooqi, Pakistan's most wanted terrorist with a 20 million rupee (330,000 dollars) bounty on his head, was killed in a gunfight with security forces in Nawabshah in southern Sindh province, a security official earlier told AFP.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity said Farooqi, 30, and his accomplices put up "very strong" resistance, firing at security officials with automatic weapons from inside their hideout.
"The raid was conducted on specific information that Farooqi was hiding in the area."
Security forces ringed the house in the rural town of Nawabshah, 270 kilometers (169 miles) north of the port city of Karachi.
"We challenged the inmates to surrender but they opened fire at the security officials, triggering a gunbattle which lasted more than two hours," the security official said.
"I will prefer death," Farooqi shouted during the firefight, according to the official.
The security forces later stormed the house and Farooqi was found dead, while two men, two women and two children were captured alive, the official said, adding that all were Pakistani nationals.
"It's a very significant achievement in our fight against Al-Qaeda," an intelligence official said, referring to Farooqi's elimination.
President Musharraf had named Farooqi as the "Pakistani mastermind" of the December 25 assassination plot by two suicide bombers who rammed their explosives-laden vehicles close to his motorcade, leaving more than a dozen people dead.
The Christmas Day attack came two weeks after a road bridge was blown up in an earlier attempt to kill Musharraf while he was going to his official army residence in the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Farooqi was the lynchpin of the Al-Qaeda network in Pakistan and had also been involved in the kidnap-murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl in Karachi in early 2002, the security official said.
He was indicted over Pearl's murder but was never tracked down.
Security officials had described Farooqi as an "extremely intelligent and elusive terrorist operative".
Farooqi was a close associate of Libyan Abu Faraj Farj, operational chief of Al-Qaeda in the region, who has so far eluded a nationwide hunt by security agencies.
His connection with Islamic militants came early when as a teenager he joined the Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami militant group.
In 1992 he was sent to Afghanistan for training and fought alongside the Taliban in their battles against the rival Northern Alliance, according to security officials.
After the Taliban conquered most of Afghanistan in 1996 the young fighter's contacts with Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his closest lieutenants deepened.
Farooqi had close contact with Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Al-Qaeda's number three and the alleged chief planner of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Mohammad was arrested in March 2003 near Islamabad.
Farooqi provided the militants who kept Pearl in a shed on Karachi's outskirts after the reporter was abducted on January 23, 2002, a police officer who investigated the case had told AFP.
He also recruited the trio of men who slit Pearl's throat as a video-camera filmed and was said to be "very close" to Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the British-born militant convicted of plotting Pearl's abduction and murder.
Pakistan security forces have captured about 600 Al-Qaeda suspects since late 2001 and handed the majority over to US custody.