Pakistan arrests four extremist group members

MULTAN, Pakistan -- Pakistani police arrested four members of a banned Islamic extremist group suspected of involvement in dozens of religiously motivated killings, officials said Sunday.

The arrests of the members of the Sunni Muslim Lashkar-e-Jhangvi occurred in the town of Jhang in Punjab province, said inspector Farhan Tanveer of the Jhang police.

They had been in hiding since returning from neighboring Afghanistan where they fought alongside the Taliban against U.S.-backed forces, Tanveer told The Associated Press.

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, said Tanveer.

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

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-Qaida 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 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 that killed 12 people, and the May 8 suicide bombing outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi, which killed 11 French engineers and three other people, including the bomber. None of the suspects has been charged.

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.