Pakistan counterterror official says Taliban militants arrested, bomb factory found

Pakistan official: 3 Taliban militants arrested

KARACHI, Pakistan — Police arrested three Taliban militants Saturday and seized a bomb-making factory in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi, a counterterrorism official said.

Police raided a house in the city’s industrial area and forced the militants to surrender after a gunbattle, said Raja Omar Khatab. No one was injured.

After their arrest, the suspects led police elsewhere to the bomb factory, and a large number of explosives, detonators and other bomb-making material was seized, he said.

Violence has surged in Pakistan in recent days as militants — thought to be part of a loose network of Islamist insurgents fighting the U.S.-allied Islamabad government — launched a wave of suicide bombings.