MULTAN, Pakistan: A Pakistani minister says counter terrorism officials in the country’s eastern Punjab province have arrested 42 militant suspects with alleged links to the Daesh group.

Rana Sanaullah, the country’s law minister, says the arrests were the result of raids in four Punjab cities over the weekend.

The minister says those arrested had been tasked with setting up sleeper cells for Daesh, and that those arrested include purported Daesh Islamabad chief Amir Mansoor, his deputy Abdullah Mansoori and the group’s chief for Sindh province, Umer Kathio.

The minister says the raids also yielded IS literature and weapons.

He says the operation against alleged Daesh militants was launched after a raid last week in Daska district, also in Punjab province, when 13 other Daesh suspects were arrested.