Police nab five separatists in Pakistan's Sindh

HYDERABAD, Pakistan, Mar 3 (Reuters) Pakistani police have arrested five nationalist militants today and recovered a cache of arms and explosives in southern Sindh province, a senior police official said.

''They have links with the Sindh Liberation Army, which has carried out subversive activities in the past in the province,'' Shaukat Shah, a senior police official told Reuters.

Police also recovered 17 kg of explosives and five pistols in the raid in the Qasimabad neighbourhood of Hyderabad city.

''These people were getting aid from a foreign country to carry out terrorism to destablise the country,'' Shah said without naming any country.

Authorities have in the past pointed fingers at India for its alleged involvement in sabotage carried out by separatist groups.

Pakistan is in the grip of a security scare because of a threat from Islamist militants furious over President Pervez Musharraf's alliance with the United States in a war on terrorism and his peace moves with India, and there has been a wave of suicide attacks and bomb blasts in the country since January.

REUTERS SP PM1616