Militants arrested in Pakistan crackdown

Police display an arms cache confiscated after the arrest of members of the banned Sunni militant groups earlier this month

MULTAN, Pakistan -- Pakistan police have arrested members of a banned militant group believed to be responsible for two deadly attacks in Karachi.

Four members of the extremist Sunni Muslim Lashkar-e-Jhangvi were arrested in the town of Jhang in Punjab province, said inspector Farhan Tanveer of the Jhang police.

Police said the men have been in hiding since returning from neighboring Afghanistan, where they fought alongside the Taliban.

Officials on Sunday said the group were suspected of involvement in dozens of sectarian killings.

Police have detained dozens of suspected militants, many of them Lashkar-e-Jhangvi members, in connection with the June 14 car bombing outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi and the May 8 suicide bombing outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi.

The consulate bombing killed 12 people, while 11 French engineers and three other people, including the bomber were killed in the Sheraton blast. None of the suspects has been charged.

One of the four militants, whose names were not given, is wanted in connection with dozens of sectarian killings in Pakistan, including a 1992 rocket attack on a police armored vehicle in which six police died, Tanveer told The Associated Press.

"All the four activists are involved in a number of religiously motivated killings of minority Shiite Muslims across the country," he said.

Al Qaeda links

On July 1, police arrested Lashkar-e-Jhangvi leader Akram Lahori and four followers, all accused of involvement in religious killings. Lahori is also accused of killing the brother of Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider.

Although Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has traditionally targeted Shiite Muslims, police have speculated recently that they may be working with groups connected to al Qaeda to take revenge on Westerners and the Pakistani government for the collapse of the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan and for Musharraf's crackdown on militant Islamic groups.

Police working with the FBI are also investigating possible links between the bombings and the kidnap-slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl this year.