Police on Saturday night raided the homes of Azhar and the headquarters of Khudamul-e-Islam (KI) in his hometown Bahawalpur in Punjab province last night, but drew a blank, Pakistani TV channel Geo reported yesterday.

Police also raided several KI offices in Lahore, Karachi, Hyderabad and other places in Pakistan, and sealed them. The whereabouts of Azhar were still not known.

Azhar, who formed Jaish after his release from an Indian prison following the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane from Kathmandu to Kandahar in 1998, founded KI after last year's ban on Jaish by President Pervez Musharraf.

While cracking down on KI, Pakistan police also arrested Allama Sajid Naqvi Islami, the leader of Shia politico-religious party Tehriki-i-Islami Pakistan (TP), banned on Saturday night along with KI and Sunni outfit Millat-e-Islamiya.

Naqvi, who formed TP after his main outfit Tehrik-i-Jafria Pakistan was banned by Musharraf last year, was arrested in Rawalpindi and was recently charged with the assassination of Sunni extremist leader Mulana Tariq Azam who founded Millat-e-Islamiya party to replace the banned Sepha-e-Sehba.