Pakistan rounds up militants

 

Pakistani police have arrested large numbers of Islamic activists in what appears to be a major operation against militant and sectarian groups. Police say the militants include several belonging to groups linked to last month's attack on the Indian parliament. Pakistan's tackling of anti-Indian militants is the key sticking point in resolving the dispute between Delhi and Islamabad which had pushed them to the brink of another war. Pakistan is refusing to hand over a number of men India says were behind the parliament attack, saying it has received no evidence of their involvement. Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf says the two sides should hold talks on the crisis at a regional summit in Nepal. But India has rejected the idea. The meeting was due to get under way on Friday, but was postponed until Saturday after Mr Musharraf's plane was held up by bad weather. After the attack on the Indian parliament in which 14 people were killed, both sides have massed thousands of troops along their border. India says two of its troops have been killed in the latest shelling across the ceasefire line in the disputed territory of Kashmir. The new wave of police detentions - focusing on the province of Punjab - began on Thursday and will continue "for a couple of days more," a Pakistani police officer said. The detainees include members of Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad - the two groups India says carried out the attack on its parliament with the support of Pakistan's intelligence services. The leaders of the two groups are already under detention following earlier raids. But most of the new arrests have targeted groups accused of promoting violence between Muslims. A Sunni group, Sipah-e-Sahaba, says 200 of its supporters were held. Tehrik-e-Jaffria - a Shia group - estimates it has suffered 100 arrests. The head of a Sunni seminary in the city of Faisalabad, Maulana Zahid-ul-Qasami, told the BBC a number of Islamic educational institutions affiliated to mosques have also been raided by the police.