KARACHI, May 3: Four more foreigners were picked up in a pre- dawn raid on Saturday for alleged links with the Al Qaeda network. Two were nabbed from Karachi and two from Balochistan.

Intelligence and law enforcement agencies had detained almost 20 persons by Friday night in the new crackdown on the Al Qaeda network. These include some of Arab origin.

Well-placed sources in the intelligence agencies said they had intercepted a satellite telephone conversation in Arabic and raided a place in Winder, Balochistan, in the early hours on Saturday from where they picked up Jawwad Al Bashar, an Egyptian national. The agencies also nabbed an Afghan national Farzand Shah Inquilabi in the same vicinity.

The intelligence agencies questioned the two, who led investigators to Khuda ki Basti, a lower middle class township in Surjani Town, Karachi, from where two more Egyptian nationals were picked up. They were identified as Abdul Khaliq Mohammad and Abi Abdullah.

The sources said three Kalashnikov rifles, four TT pistols, laptop computers, satellite phones, communication devices, modems and other communication-related accessories were recovered from the arrested suspects besides some explosives.

The operation to track down Al Qaeda members began with the detention of Waleed Mohammad bin Attash, a Yemeni national, allegedly involved in bombing the USS Cole in Yemen, killing 17 US sailors. Five other suspects were also detained along with Attash on Tuesday last.

Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the US warning about a possible air attack on its consulate in Karachi, the police have tightened security at the consulate and other US interests in the metropolis.

Acting Saddar town police chief Imran Shaukat said: "We spoke to the experts who say that it is almost impossible to crash a commercial aircraft into the US consulate as it is surrounded by high rise buildings.”

He quoted the experts as saying that the existing conditions could not allow a commercial aircraft to hit the US consulate. The other possibility was using a Cessna aircraft which in Karachi are operated by Schon Club. “We spoke to Schon Club authorities who said that they have not been chartering their aircraft for several years and had their own trained pilots to operate their planes. There are pilots learning how to fly an aircraft but there is a strict check on them”, he added.

The only possibility left was that a helicopter belonging to the Edhi Foundation could be used. But Mr Shaukat said: “We are maintaining strict vigilance.”