Pakistani Police Arrest Hundreds Of Suspected Militants

Police in Pakistan's northwest say they have rounded up more than 650 suspected militants after a major bomb attack last week that left more than 100 dead.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the July 9 attack, the deadliest in Pakistan in nine months.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister for the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, said police and paramilitary forces were taking part in the operation, which was focused on the provincial capital, Peshawar, and three nearby districts.

Peshawar police chief Liaqat Ali Khan told AFP that some 400 of those detained were arrested in Peshawar and that police also recovered arms and explosives.

But relatives of those arrested in the crackdown said most of those detained were innocent.

compiled from agency reports