Multan, July 10: Two members of an outlawed Islamic group were arrested in connection with six religiously- motivated killings in the past year, officials said.
Rafaqat Ali and Abdul Majeed, members of Lashkar-e- Jhangvi, who were arrested yesterday, confessed to killing six minority Shiite Muslims between June 2001 and last month in Punjab province, said Ahmed Raza Tahir, a local police chief.
The two suspects are yet to be brought to court and formally charged.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was banned by President Pervez Musharraf last august and is one of several religious militant groups blamed for attacks on Pakistanis and westerners since Musharraf threw his support behind the us backed war in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Religious extremists have bitterly criticized Musharraf for supporting the us led coalition that ousted the Taliban and threw the al Qaida terrorist network's operations in Afghanistan in disarray.
Police have recently speculated that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi members may be working with al-Qaida-affiliated groups to take revenge on westerners and the Pakistani government for the collapse of the Taliban.
Police have detained dozens of suspected militants, many of them Lashkar-e-Jhangvi members, in connection with the June 14 bombing outside the us consulate in Karachi that killed 12 people and injured 50, and the may 8 suicide bombing outside the Sheraton hotel in Karachi, which killed 11 French engineers and three other people, including the bomber.

Bureau Report