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"It is often talked about that militants do drug business to finance their needs, but this is the first time we have arrested such a gang," Khan told The Associated Press. The group smuggled the heroin to Singapore, Malaysia, China and United Arab Emirates, he said. Part of the profits were transferred to a Taliban commander named Abdul Samad in Chaman, an area on Pakistan's southwestern border with Afghanistan, Khan said. Karachi -- a teeming port city of more than 16 million -- has long been a hotbed for Taliban and al-Qaida-linked groups, who are believed to have staged bank robberies, kidnappings for ransom and other criminal activities to raise funds. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi had previously been known as a Sunni sectarian group blamed for attacks on minority Shiite Muslims, whom they consider heretics. However, in recent years the group has been increasingly associated with both the Pakistani Taliban, based mostly in the northwest, and al-Qaida. Two members of the group were arrested and accused of leading the gang that kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl in Karachi in 2002 on behalf of al-Qaida.
[Associated
Press;
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