Pakistan arrests more suspects

Operations against al-Qaeda appear more successful

By Zaffar Abbas BBC correspondent in Islamabad

Pakistani authorities have arrested more than a dozen people in an overnight crackdown in the city of Lahore, on suspicion of having links with the al-Qaeda network.

Western installations are seen as vulnerable

Earlier, Pakistani security agencies and the American FBI had arrested more than 50 people from another city in Punjab province.

Over the weekend, three Sudanese trainee pilots were picked up from the city of Peshawar on similar suspicions.

This third round of arrests in less than a week indicates that security agencies may have broken into the network of suspected al-Qaeda members in Pakistan.

The authorities have refused to give details of the latest arrests.

US role

But local police sources say about a dozen people, mostly of Arab origin, were rounded up from three different locations in the city.

The danger of extremist attacks is never faraway

Most of the over 50 people arrested in the first round of raids in the city of Faisalabad too are believed to be Arabs.

That was a highly organised security operation.

Some of the people arrested then were released after initial interrogation.

But Pakistani officials privately say about 20 Arab nationals have been handed over to the Americans for further questioning.

Backlash fears

One of them is said to have a striking resemblance to Abu Zubaiyda, a key associate of Osama bin Laden.

Foreign militants have operated out of Pakistan

If this is true, he will be the highest ranking al-Qaeda member to have been arrested since the military strikes began in Afghanistan.

The American FBI is playing a key role in the present search-and-arrest campaign in Pakistan.

FBI operatives have supervised the raids on all the three occasions.

But in order to avoid a political backlash in the country, Pakistani officials say the FBI's role is only confined to the sharing of intelligence in tracking down the al-Qaeda suspects.