Pakistan police arrests 6 suspected Taliban fighters

QUETTA, Pakistan, Oct 1 (Reuters) Pakistani police today arrested six suspected Taliban fighters wounded in fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The six were arrested in a raid on a private hospital in Quetta city where they were being treated for their injuries.

''We suspect they are all Taliban and were wounded in fighting in southern Afghanistan,'' Rehmatullah Niazi, an assistant inspector general of police in Baluchistan province told Reuters. Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan.

He said interrogations were underway to ascertain the identity of the suspects. He said three people with the suspects were also arrested.

In July, police in Quetta arrested around 250 suspected Taliban as well as Afghan students in Islamist seminaries or madrasas.

Scores of them were handed over to Afghan authorities but they released them saying none of them appeared to be members of the Taliban movement.

US-led forces ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in 2001 after the hardline Islamists refused to give up al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the September. 11 attacks.

This year Afghanistan has seen the worst violence since then with hundreds killed in a renewed Taliban insurgency.

Afghan officials have long complained that Taliban organise and launch cross-border attacks from Pakistani regions, close to Afghanistan, where they enjoy the sympathy and support of fellow Pashtun tribes as well as from the madrasas.

They say that while Pakistan has killed and arrested hundreds of al Qaeda militants since joining the US-led war on terrorism in the wake of September. 11, it has been soft in dealing with the Taliban.

Pakistan denies the charge. It says it has deployed nearly 80,000 troops along its 2,400 km frontier with Afghanistan and wants Afghan and NATO-led foreign forces to tighten border security on their side to stem militant activities.

REUTERS SY PM2310