LAHORE, Jan 12: Raids on seminaries and private houses in the Punjab are continuing as search operation launched for some Taliban fugitives, those released after interrogation said on Monday.

The raids continued on Monday as an office-bearer of JUI- F, Nasir Khan, was picked up from his Faisalabad house and shifted to an unknown place. Over three dozen people belonging to various religious parties have been picked up in raids on religious schools in the last couple of days. Most of the arrested men have been set free after questioning. But around half a dozen are still in custody. The arrests are said to be linked to part of the investigation into attacks on President Musharraf.

"Interrogators just showed us pictures and asked about their whereabouts," one of the men, who was set free on Sunday night, told Dawnon condition of anonymity. He said the men in pictures seemed to be Taliban.

Quoting the interrogators, he said the wanted men knew several languages, including English. Both the Punjab home secretary and the IGP were not available for comments on the raids while city police officers kept a mum.

Two seminaries were raided in the city on Saturday and Sunday and 10 people, including an elderly man, Maulana Syed Nafees Ahmad, were picked up. Similar raids were conducted in the other parts of the province, mainly in Sargodha and Faisalabad.

A source quoted one of those arrested and set free in Sargodha as saying: "The agencies are looking for a Taliban having links with Al Qaeda." He was among the 17 other people picked up from two religious schools and a hospital in Sargodha.

"The law enforcers believe the wanted man had been injured in some operation and he was under treatment somewhere in the province." "We fail to understand what the government is up to," JUI-F information secretary Riaz Durrani said, and added an office-bearer of his party apprehended from Faisalabad on Monday was a businessman.