Multan, Pakistan, June 25: Police arrested a suspected member of an outlawed Islamic militant group and seized hand grenades and assault rifles in a raid on a house in central Pakistan, police said today. The suspect, identified as Hafiz Tayyab, is allegedly a member of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group, which authorities have blamed for the murder of hundreds of minority Shiite Muslims and Christians in Pakistan. Pakistani authorities also suspect that the group's top leaders helped in the kidnap and slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002. Tayyab was captured yesterday at Buraywala, a remote village 150 kilometres northeast of Multan, police official Chaudhry Iftikhar said. With Tayyab's arrest, "We can say that Lashkar-e-Jhanhgvi terrorist group has been dismantled", he said.

Tayyab's capture came two days after police arrested five alleged members of the militant group, including a man who was wanted in the killing of eight Pakistani policemen in Multan in 1999 and 2000.

Bureau Report