Pakistan arrests terror suspects

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A series of early morning raids in the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Faisalabad netted an undisclosed number of suspected terrorists, police in Punjab province said Thursday.

A police spokesman said the suspects opened fire during one of the raids, seriously wounding an officer. One of the suspects was killed, the spokesman said, and two more wounded.

The spokesman also said that authorities conducted the raids after getting unspecified information that the suspects had been "involved in terrorist activities in the past and were planning further terrorist acts."

The police did not identify the suspects or any groups they may have been associated with. Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, banned five Islamic groups in January as part of a major crackdown on militancy in his country.

There were reports that at least some of the suspects may have been members of al Qaeda and that some may have some connection with the March 17 attack on the Protestant International Church in Islamabad that left five people -- including two Americans -- dead.

Authorities said they were investigating the report.

-- CNN Producer Barbara Arvanitidou contributed to this report