PESHAWAR, July 8: Security agencies have arrested eight militants suspected of involvement in sectarian violence, including the assassination of a Shia cleric in Gilgit that had led to sectarian violence in the northern region.

Official sources said that a security agency had arrested the eight men, all activists of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi outfit, from the NWFP’s northern district of Chitral.

The arrests were made on Thursday and had no link to the Shindoor Polo festival, the sources said.

The sources said the eight men had been involved in sectarian violence, including assassination of Allama Ziauddin in Gilgit last year that had sparked sectarian violence. They said that one of them had admitted to his role in Allama’s murder.