Pakistan detained more than 5,000 after Easter bombing killed 72
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has rounded up more than 5,000 militant suspects, then released most of them, in the two days since a suicide bomber killed at least 72 people in a park in Lahore at Easter, a provincial minister said on Tuesday.
Sanaullah said "5,221 people have initially been detained. 5,005 have been released after verifying their identities, and 216 people have been referred for further investigation.
Details of the sweeping raids aimed at anyone suspected of violent Islamist extremism came as the Taliban faction claiming responsibility for the attack issued a new threat on Tuesday, singling out the media.
"Everyone will get their turn in this war, especially the slave Pakistani media," Ehsanullah Ehsan, spokesman for the Taliban faction Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, tweeted. "We are just waiting for the appropriate time.".
