Security was tightened in major Pakistani cities today after a suicide attack outside a mosque amid fears of sectarian violence as the Islamic country’s Shiite minority marked the religious holiday of Muharram.

Pakistani agents staged a pre-dawn raid at an apartment complex today and arrested seven suspected foreign members of the al-Qaida terror group who had been living there for two months.

Pakistani agents have arrested seven al-Qaida suspects and confiscated some weaponry in a raid in the southern city of Karachi, an intelligence officer said.

Pakistani police are now examining Karachi’s notorious criminal gangs in their hunt for kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.