With terror toll mounting, Pakistan law enforcement agencies began swoops countrywide, arresting over 80 people suspected to be involved in the recent spate of deadly strikes, including in the synchronised suicide attacks in Lahore which left 29 people dead.

Keen to unravel the extent of involvement of Punjabi militants in the new attacks, security agencies took 36 suspects into custody from Lahore, where Taliban mounted three near-simultaneous terror attacks on security facilities.

Twenty suspects were picked from Gulshan-e-Daud Colony in Manawan, where terrorists targeted a police training centre yesterday. Eleven more were detained from areas on Bedian Road where another training centre came under attack.

Four others were nabbed from Temple Road where a gunman was killed while attacking a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) office, and one more from the cantonment, police said.

The police dragnet stretched to Karachi where authorities arrested 43 suspects, including four who were receiving treatment for gunshot wounds in a hospital.

The police stumbled upon the injured suspects after they caught two militants belonging to Amjad Farooqi group, a Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan faction having links with al-Qaeda.

The two militants were arrested from a house near the super highway in Karachi, sources said. A large number of explosives and weapons were recovered from the house and their arrest led the police to the hospital.

"The agencies suspect all six were involved in the recent spate of terrorist attacks in Lahore and Peshawar and might have come to Karachi to hide and recover from injuries," the sources said, adding the authorities expected to make more arrests in next few days.

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