Islamabad, July 17
The Pakistan police has arrested 10 militants as also the editor and staff of a weekly run by terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed from different cities in Punjab province, two days after President Pervez Musharraf ordered a new crackdown on banned Jehadi groups.
The police raided the office of the weekly “Zarb-i-Islam”, mouthpiece of Jaish in Karachi, and picked up its editor Nasir Ali Jahangir and his assistant Mohammad Saleem for allegedly spreading hate literature, Daily Times reported.
The police seized copies of the weekly from the office premises and sealed it, the report said today.
“We have picked up the editor and his assistant and kept them in the police station. No case has been registered against them and we are waiting for further orders from high-ups,” a police official said.
Different newspaper stalls at Saddar in the city were also raided and six hawkers picked up for selling copies of another Urdu weekly “Zarb-i-Momin,” the report said.
In a separate crackdown, the police of the Punjab province had detained 10 militants, the paper said.
Four were arrested from Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh and Kamalia. Two were identified as Nazir and Shahzad. Four others were arrested from Lahore but three were later set free.
“Two Jaish-e-Mohammad activists were arrested from Gujranwala on Saturday and were being interrogated,” the paper said, adding that another major operation was expected today.
In the wake of reports that three
of the London suicide bombers had been to Pakistan, a joint team of British and Pakistani investigators visited two religious seminaries in the country, reports said today. A team of British and Pakistani agencies visited Jamia Manzoorul Islamia, a madrasa in Lahore and met the seminary’s administrator Asadullah Farooq and some students, local daily
Daily Times reported. “The seminary’s gates were closed while they were there, and no one was allowed to come out or go in,” it quoted an official as saying.
Another team of the same agencies also visited Raiwind yesterday and met tableeghi jamaat (Islamic preacher) leaders. “They were searching for traces of Shehzad Tanweer’s presence here,” they said. The visits of the investigators to the madrasas followed leads that the three of the London suicide bombers recently visited Pakistan.
— PTI
