Three IS-linked Pakistan militants arrested in Lahore

LAHORE: Pakistani authorities have arrested two militants and a Syrian national here for their alleged role in recruiting people to the Islamic State terror group.

According to a senior police officer here, the intelligence agencies raided a house in Shahdara, a thickly-populated area of northern Lahore yesterday and arrested three militants.

They were identified as Yousuf al Salafi, a Syrian national of Pakistani decent, Fawad and Hafiz Tayyab.

During interrogation, Fawad and Tayyab said that Salafi had come here to recruit Pakistanis for the IS and he promised to pay money for each recruit.

"There are many activists of the banned Sunni organisations who are willing to go Syria to flight along the IS," they said.

Some Taliban groups have already announced support for the IS. There have been unconfirmed reports that a good number of Taliban militants and members of other banned organisations from Pakistan have managed to reach Syria and joined the IS.

The three suspects have been shifted to undisclosed location for further investigation.