500 suspects held for links with terror

Crackdown sees highest number of arrests from Punjab, followed by Karachi.

To prevent a backlash of North Waziristan operation, security forces rounded up over 500 persons from across the country including Islamabad on suspicion of having links with proscribed organisations.

“The detained persons will be prosecuted under the Protection of Pakistan Act,” an official of the interior ministry said requesting anonymity. The newly promulgated act gives blanket power to the law enforcers to detain terror suspects.

The countrywide action against members of proscribed organisations was taken to prevent any retaliatory strike in response to the operation in North Waziristan.

The interior ministry official said that most of the arrests were made in Punjab. “Over 300 men were picked up from various cities of Punjab, mostly from Bahawalpur,” he said.

Following Punjab, highest numbers of arrests were made in Karachi where over a 100 persons were detained. In Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, around 150 men belonging to banned organisations were detained, the official said.

He said that according to a report of the secret agencies sent to the federal government, after North and South Waziristan the highest number of Taliban and their supporters are holed up in Karachi.

The interior ministry official said that the secret agencies and the law enforcement agencies had informed the ministry about the crackdown. The National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta) was also kept in the loop, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2014.