Pak alert in Punjab, Sindh: Minister

Days after the United States Senate approved a $1.5 billion package for Pakistan, including $400 million in military assistance, Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik told The Financial Times that his government has put Punjab and Sindh on high alert to avert the possibility that Taliban terrorists, fleeing the military offensive in the Swat valley and Waziristan, may seek refuge in these areas.

Malik also believes the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Jaish-e-Mohammad will collaborate with the Taliban and Al Qaeda and offer its fighters refuge in areas like Karachi and south Punjab where Jaish and Lashkar are influential.

On Thursday night, the BBC telecast a report showing Pakistani policemen searching small hotels in Punjab towns for suspected Taliban militants. It also telecast an interview with a captured would-be suicide bomber who said he would have killed his parents had he been ordered to do so by his commanders.

Malik told The Financial Times that eight would-be

suicide bombers have been arrested recently, including two men who planned to attack Pakistan's national assembly.

His ministry, the voluble Malik said, had identified as many as 1,148 terrorist threats in the last 120 days.

The Pakistani military offensive in the Swat valley, he told The Financial Times, was in its final phase. More than 3,500 Taliban fighters had been killed, he added. Some critics have questioned that figure since no evidence -- photographic or otherwise -- of the toll has emerged so far.

Malik also wanted the Afghanistan government to cooperate with his government since arms and ammunition for the Taliban fighters, he claimed, were coming in from Pakistan's western neighbour.

'Every bullet, every Kalashnikov is coming across the border from Afghanistan,' Mailk told The Financial Times. He also disclosed that China will loan millions of dollars to Pakistan to establish electronic scanners which will scrutinise road traffic entering its cities.