RAWALPINDI, Aug 18: Law-enforcement personnel continued raids on Madressahs in the federal capital on Wednesday in search of the Imam of the Lal Mosque and his brother who are wanted by police for their alleged links with Al Qaeda.

The Imam, Maulana Abdul Aziz, and his brother Maulana Ghazi Abdul Rashid had issued fatwa against the army and the Wana operation.

Heavy contingents of police commandos led by Azam Taimoori, the acting SSP Islamabad, raided a seminary (Fareedia) in E-7. They did not find either Maulana Abdul Aziz or his brother.

However, they seized the record of the seminary and also picked up a plainclothes security guard from there who had been carrying an AK-47 riffle. Later, he was freed but his weapon was seized by police.

The raiding party first held discussions with officials of the E-7 Madressah before launching the search. The search continued for more than two hours. A police official said that a report had been registered with the Kohsar police against the security guard on charges of keeping the illegal weapon. However, a formal FIR will be registered because he had failed to produce its licence.

Earlier, the Aabpara police booked 500 to 600 people, a large number of women among them, on charges of shouting anti-police slogans and resisting the police force which had raided the Lal Mosque and its madressah on Tuesday.

Qari Mohammad Ayub, Qari Mohammad Yaqoob, Maulana Abdul Karim, Qari Abdul Rashid, Qari Tanveer, Maulana Abdul Rauf and the women carrying batons and sticks have been identified in the FIR lodged with the Aabpara police.