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Pakistan police arrest al Qaeda suspects

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Four Arabs and at least one Pakistani suspected of having links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network have been detained in central Pakistan.

Pakistani police say the men, disguised in women's burqas -- a traditional all-encompassing robe -- were arrested after a high-speed car chase.

They say the men were apprehended overnight Wednesday at a checkpoint about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the town of Mianwali.

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"They were coming from the frontier province," a source in Mianwali told Reuters, referring to Pakistan's northwestern region that borders Afghanistan.

The men knocked down a pedestrian during the chase, witnesses said.

The suspected al Qaeda men have now been taken to the Pakistani city of Lahore for questioning, officials say.

Pakistani and U.S. authorities have said they suspect hundreds of former al Qaeda fighters have fled to the Pakistani border region following the American bombing of eastern Afghanistan.

More than 62,000 troops from Pakistan's military have been guarding the border to prevent al Qaeda incursions or escapes.

So far they have arrested more than 400 foreign nationals believed linked to al Qaeda or their supporters, the overthrown Taliban militia.

However, U.S. officials are worried that Pakistan's redeployment of border troops along the frontier with India may hamper efforts to round up fleeing Taliban and al Qaeda members.

India and Pakistan have both sent hundreds of thousands of troops to their border amid rising tensions over what India says is Pakistani sponsorship of Kashmiri militants.