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Pakistan arrests 14 in terror inquiry©Associated PressJune 21, 2002 KARACHI, Pakistan -- Pakistani police working with the FBI arrested seven Arabs suspected of al-Qaida links and detained seven Pakistanis in the investigation into attacks on Americans and other foreigners in Pakistan, officials said Thursday. None of the 14 people has been charged, and it was unclear if the Pakistanis in custody had links to the Arabs. The arrests were part of what appeared to be a security crackdown in Pakistan's largest city, which officials fear has become a hub of al-Qaida and Islamic militant activity. The seven Arabs were arrested over the past two days. U.S. and Pakistani agents were interrogating the Arabs to determine possible links to al-Qaida. The seven Pakistanis were rounded up as part of the investigation into last week's bombing outside the U.S. Consulate, which killed 12 Pakistanis, and the May 8 suicide bombing in front of a Karachi hotel that killed 11 French engineers and three other people, including the bomber. Officials said the seven Pakistanis belong to the banned Sunni Muslim extremist Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group. Police said two of them, believed to be senior Lashkar-e-Jhangvi figures, were detained several days ago and the others on Wednesday. A cache of explosives and weapons, including 90 Kalashnikov assault rifles, was confiscated in the second raid. Police said they also were trying to determine if the seven were involved in the January kidnap-slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi. Pakistan has been facing a backlash from religious extremists since President Pervez Musharraf abandoned his Taliban allies and threw his support behind the U.S.-led war on terrorism. The foundation of the religious extremist movement is the network of 8,000 Islamic religious schools, or madrassas, across the country -- some of which teach a militant brand of Islam similar to that of al-Qaida and the Taliban. On Thursday, Religious Affairs Minister Mehmood Ghazi said the government would soon pass laws banning the teaching of militancy and extremism at madrassas. Clerics found to be fanning sectarian hatred and extremism in the schools would face prison terms of two years, Ghazi said.
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