ISLAMABAD, Jan 5: Police rounded up 200 activists of religious parties across the country early on Saturday, hours before President Pervez Musharraf told a Saarc summit he was determined to stamp out terrorism.

Police raided mosques, houses and activists bases in early morning sweeps, picking up some activists at prayer, government and religious group officials said.

More than 200 members of Sipah-i-Sahaba were detained in overnight raids in Sindh and Punjab, the SSP’s central secretary-general, Khadim Hussain Dhalon, told Reuters.

“They detained our people in mosques during Fajr prayers,” he said, adding that as many as 300 members of the group had been rounded up in the last three days. “We have asked our workers to go underground,” he said.

Police sources also put the number of people detained at about 200, although a Foreign Ministry spokesman later said the number of detainees was more than 100 in the past several days.

Sipah-i-Sahaba claimed the government was trying to appease India and the United States and the group would continue to support Kashmiri freedom fighters.—Reuters