Pakistani police arrested about 200 religious extremists yesterday, taking the total number of detentions to 1,141 under a crackdown against five groups banned by the President, General Pervez Musharraf, officials said.
The arrests began even before the announcement of the crackdown by General Musharraf in a landmark address to the nation on Saturday, with police moving against extremist groups in all four provinces of the country.
"Police have arrested 1,141 militants and sealed 390 offices of the banned parties across the country," Interior Secretary Mr Tasneem Noorani said yesterday.
Mr Noorani said the crackdown would continue. "They have been detained on suspicion that they could indulge in activities threatening public peace and obstructing implementation of the orders," he said.
Police said hundreds of religious activists were taken into custody on Sunday as the crackdown continued for a second day, mainly in the eastern province of Punjab bordering India.
Two of the banned groups - the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad - are among the most hardline Islamic groups fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir.
New Delhi accuses them of orchestrating a surprise attack on the Indian Parliament last month which left 14 people dead and sparked a massive troop build-up on both sides of the India-Pakistan border.
The other three banned groups include two sectarian extremist organizations and a radical Islamic party opposed to Pakistan's alignment with the United States-led war against Afghanistan's Taliban and terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden.
The Indian Government has demanded the extradition of 20 Pakistan-based militants as well as the closure of training camps and arms supply routes.
Meanwhile, two soldiers shot and killed each other following an argument and a scuffle near the India-Pakistan border in the northern Indian State of Jammu-Kashmir, police said yesterday.
Four other soldiers were injured when the two soldiers got into an argument and began firing indiscriminately at each other at Khanetar in the Punch district.