2011-02-21 15:22

ISLAMABAD - Pakistani police and rangers on Sunday night arrested more than 100 suspected miscreants during a sudden crackdown launched in the country's southern coastal city of Karachi, security sources said on Monday.

A joint operation was carried out by police and rangers after the killing of a religious scholar in the city which, police feared, might trigger another wave of target killing in the city.

The detainees were shifted to unknown location by the rangers while most of them were reportedly released.

During the door to door operation the whole area and main roads were sealed by the security personnel and no one was allowed to leave or enter the area.

The Rangers officials also claimed to have recovered large cache of arms from the arrested persons and from a bus in the cantonment area.

The officials also told that they launched operation after rising tension caused by two sectarian groups in Godhra are since last three days in which many people were killed.

Meanwhile, a spokesman of Awami National Party Sindh chapter had claimed that more than 500 political workers of their party were arrested in the name of the operation.

"The party would call for an indefinite strike and protest at roads if the nabbed workers would not be released soon," he said while talking to a local TV channel.

Hundreds of people have been killed in Karachi, the business hub of Pakistan, since last year in the result of ethnic and religious armed clashes.