Pakistan says arrests Lashkar-e-Taiba suspect

LAHORE, Pakistan, July 25 (Reuters) Pakistan has arrested a suspected member of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba, officials said today, but they made no reference to suspicions in India that the group was involved in bomb blasts in Mumbai earlier this month.

Mohammad Shahzad was brought to the capital Islamabad today, a day after his arrest in Lahore on charges of theft and gun running, the Pakistani officials said.

''He was involved in stealing cars and smuggling weapons from Afghanistan, which were used for terrorism,'' an intelligence official said.

Shahzad was said to have been close to Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the former chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba who took over as chief of the Islamic charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa just before Lashkar was banned in 2002.

Shahzad, according to intelligence officials, also quit Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2003 and formed his own charity after falling out with Saeed.

After the Mumbai train attacks that killed over 180 people and wounded hundreds more on July 11, Indian security forces arrested a number of local suspects believed to be connected to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Both Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa are on a US list of terrorist organisations, although Pakistan has taken no action against the charity.

REUTERS MQA PM2037