ISLAMABAD, Jan 12: The police said on Saturday they had arrested over 350 militants ahead of President Pervez Musharraf’s speech later in the day, which will focus on curbing extremism.

Interior ministry sources also said police in all the four provinces had been ordered to guard mosques and religious places.

“The move is aimed at warding off any attempts by extremist groups to disturb law and order,” an interior ministry official said.

Police in Karachi said they had detained over 200 militants from the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan and the Tehreek-i-Jafria Pakistan in Sindh as a preventive measure to avoid any possible backlash in case of a ban being placed on the groups.

“Police have detained over 200 militants of different sectarian groups throughout the province including Karachi,” Sindh Police spokesman Ghulam-us-Saqlain told AFP.

A total of 74 were detained in Karachi and the rest in other parts of the province under the Maintenance of Public Order, he said.

Police in the North West Frontier Province have rounded up more than 100 leaders and activists of the same two sectarian parties since Friday, police said.

In Punjab, around 50 preachers had been arrested since Friday for violating government restrictions on the use of loudspeakers for delivering inflammatory sermons in mosques, police said.

“The roundup under preventive custody laws is part of government’s drive to contain religious militancy and misuse of mosques’ loudspeakers,” a senior police official in Lahore said.—AFP