Pakistan police arrest five militants

KARACHI, Tuesday (Reuters) - Pakistani police arrested five suspected militants on Monday who they said planned to blow up railway lines, transmission lines and gas pipelines in southern Sindh province and accused Indian intelligence of backing them.

Pakistan and India have frequently accused each other's intelligence services of being behind militant operations, but such accusations have been heard less often since South Asia's two nuclear armed rivals began a peace process early last year.

"The police arrested these five men from Karachi this morning on a tip-off from Army Intelligence," Karachi police chief Tariq Jamil said on Monday.

"These men were planning to carry out blasts on the railway track near Hyderabad and on gas pipelines and transmission lines in the Dadu district," he told reporters.

The detained men have admitted operating with the backing of India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), and say their leaders met with Indian agents outside Pakistan, Jamil said.

"They had obtained training at a terrorist camp some 300 km away from Sibi in Baluchistan, where they learned to make bombs and operate different weapons," he said.