Pakistan has arrested the head of a militant group accused of masterminding the kidnapping of three UN workers in Afghanistan in October, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Saturday.

Syed Akbar Agha, the chief of militant group Jaishul Muslimeen, was arrested on Friday in Karachi following a tip-off, Rashid said. He gave no further details.

Media reports said Agha was arrested following a tip off from his close lieutenants who developed differences with
him over the sharing of the $ 1.5 million ransom received by Agha for releasing the three UN election workers
-- Irish woman Annette Flanigan, Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo and Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan.

US military authorities or the Afghan government could ask Pakistan to hand over Agha to them for putting him on
trial.

Some of Agha's former Afghan colleagues, who quit Jaishul Muslimeen after accusing him of pocketing $ 1.5 million in
ransom, claimed that their ex-boss was picked up by Pakistani intelligence officers from a Karachi home.