KARACHI, Sept 20: Authorities on Saturday arrested at least 17 Malaysians and Indonesians in pre-dawn raids on different religious educational institutions.

Sources said these foreigners were taken into custody because of their suspected links with “anti-social” elements.

They said the ministry of foreign affairs had received a list of suspects from their respective countries. Later, the government assigned the interior ministry to locate and arrest them.

Sources said the Federal Investigation Agency in Karachi was assigned the task to locate and arrest as many as 20 Indonesians and Malaysians. The FIA teams raided different institutions in Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Gulistan-i-Jauhar, arresting 17 of them, the sources said.

Sources said most of the arrests were made from Jama Abu Bakr, a religious institution in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, and Darasat, another such institution near the Safari Park. Some of them were picked up from their residences in Gulshan, they added.

Sources said the suspects, most of them in their 20s and 30s, had been living in the city for over three to four years. Many of them have been staying here illegally, they added.

They said some of the suspects had overstayed in Pakistan after the expiry of their visas, adding that two or three suspects did not even have their passports.

Sources said the raiding parties also visited the University of Karachi and NED Engineering University during their search and locate operation.

They said the suspects, presently in the custody of the FIA, would be deported in a couple of days to the countries of origin.

Sources did not rule out the possibility of suspects’ grilling by the intelligence agencies before their deportation.