KARACHI, Nov 19: Dozens of activists belonging to various jihadi outfits have been picked up by the law-enforcement agencies in different parts of the city on the eve of the international defence exhibition, ‘Ideas-2006’, starting on Monday.

According to sources, the picked up people include those who are no more active or have disassociated themselves from such groups.

Requesting anonymity, relatives of one of the detainees told Dawn that he had been taken away by several security men in plain clothes who were armed with pistols and had come to their house in Gulshan-i-Iqbal in unmarked car on Friday last.

His family stated that he had been associated with the banned Lashkar-i-Taiba in the past but had parted ways with the group and was no more active.“After failing to locate him in an exhausting search, we received a telephone call advising us not to panic as he would be set free after the exhibition,” a family member told Dawn.

When contacted, the acting city police chief Tariq Jamil denied any directives had been given to detain activists of religious groups. He, however, stated that arrests were in the ongoing campaign against street crime.

A senior law-enforcement official confirmed that a systemic security search had been carried out along Sharea Faisal as this thoroughfare would be the route of all foreign delegates attending the exhibition.

A similar exercise has also been carried out around the Expo Centre and the roads leading to it.