LAHORE: Seven men have been arrested over alleged links to the militants, who attacked a religious minority in Lahore, killing 95 people.

Police said the seven men arrested over the past two days in different parts of Punjab belonged to a variety of militant groups but refused to specify which ones.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik visited one of the two places for worship which were attacked on Friday in Lahore and promised to work with local officials to tackle the growing problem of militancy in Pakistan’s heartland of Punjab province.
“The terrorists, who have been hiding in southern Punjab, have now surfaced,” said Malik. “Our action will be stronger now because we cannot tolerate these killings.”
The government has been criticized for lacking the will to crack down on militants in Punjab, many of whom are part of now-banned groups started with government support in the 1980s and ’90s to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan and pressure archenemy India.
Many of these groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jaish-e-Mohammad, have formed links with the Pakistani Taliban, which has recruited militants to carry out attacks in parts of Pakistan far from its sanctuary in the northwest near Afghanistan.