The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) condemned the raid on "Zarb-I-Islam", an Urdu language weekly and the arrest of its chief editor Nasir Ali Jahangir and reporter Mohammad Saleem. CPNE demanded that the government immediately release the journalists and that the case be tried in a free and fair court.

Three other publications, "Ummat", "Ghazi" and "Friday Special" were also raided and shut down.

The editor of the weekly "Wujood", Mohammad Tahir was arrested on 19 July 2005, the same day police raided the offices of another weekly "Ghazi" and a daily, "Ummat" and confiscated copies of the publications.

The police did not only target the four journalists. Several newspaper vendors were also arrested for circulating the newspapers.

The police are reported as saying that the actions were part of President Pervez Musharraf's drive to remove hate literature from circulation. No charges have been pressed against the publications and police sources told PPF that they were waiting for further orders before determining whether to lay charges.

Reacting to the Karachi raids and arrests, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) expressed concern at the abuses during the massive crackdown. The organization said the credibility of the anti-terrorist policy of President Musharraf will be judged on its ability to enforce "respect (of) the law and not to make use of it to silence opponents."

CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper stated that her organization is "concerned that the government of Pakistan is using fears over religious and sectarian extremism to pressure newspapers and curb freedom of the press."

The arrests of the media workers come at a time when a massive clampdown on Islamist extremists is underway in Pakistan. Recently police detained about 200 suspected extremists in a series of raids on religious schools, mosques and other properties.