Pakistani authorities Friday claimed to have foiled a major terrorist plot to attack the parliament and other important buildings in the capital by arresting two would-be suicide bombers.

“We foiled a plot to attack parliament, surrounding buildings and a mosque and arrested two militants,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik told state-run PTV.

Malik said one of the arrested men, who hailed from the northwestern town of Bannu, intended to carry out a suicide attack on a mosque in Sector F-8/1 neighbourhood, where foreigners and diplomats live.

Geo News channel quoted its sources as saying that the two men arrested in Islamabad were handlers of suicide attackers and that suicide vests and weapons were seized from them. The channel identified the arrested men as Qasim Munir and Naimullah.

Police were looking for the accomplices of the arrested men, the channel reported. Interior Minister Malik chaired a meeting of security officials and directed authorities to further beef up security in Islamabad.