LAHORE, Aug 9: Intelligence agencies on Monday picked up three foreigners believed to have links with Al Qaeda in the city.

An intelligence agency source told Dawn the foreigners were held in two separate raids. One of the raids was conducted on a seminary and the other on a rented house.

Two of the foreigners are said to be of Turkish origin and the third from an African country, the source said and added that they had been shifted to an interrogation facility for questioning.

However, Lahore police chief DIG Tariq Saleem said the police had nothing to do with the arrests. "Neither any such raid nor is any arrest in our knowledge," he said by phone.

The intelligence source said that two of the foreigners were said to be some big names in the Al Qaeda network and he believed their interrogation might lead to some more arrests.