FAISALABAD, Aug 22: Police claimed on Sunday to have smashed seven gangs and arrested 40 outlaws involved in incidents of dacoity, highway robbery, theft and vehicle-snatching.

District Police Officer Muhammad Amin Wains told newsmen here on Sunday that special raiding teams had been constituted for the arrest of gangsters. He said the police recovered a huge quantity of illegal weapons from the members of Hachan gang, Dendar, Talha and Sarfraz gangs.

"The arrested people are being interrogated by senior police officers for the arrest of their accomplices," Mr Wains said. The DPO said more raids were being conducted on the dens of criminals in all six tehsils of City, Saddar, Chak Jhumra, Samundri, Tandlianwala and Jaranwala.

The arrested were identified as Sarfraz, Bashir, Sajjad, Ghulam Abbas, Maqbool Ahmed, Khalid Jawed, Allah Ditta, Farooq, Nawaz Khan, Shameer, Mazhar Hussain, Saeed, Jawed, Tallat, Talha, Kaleemullah, Shaharyar, Faisal, Shahid, Ijaz, Sohni, Naseer, Zaheer, Khalid, Ilyas Dendar, Badar, Amir, Asif, Iftikhar, Irfan, Riaz Hachan, Saif and others.