Police on Wednesday raided a Madressah in pursuit of six clerics accused of issuing a Fatwa against army operations in the tribal areas along the Afghan border to flush out al Qaeda militants.
The raid, by an estimated 1,000 policemen, followed a tip-off that the six wanted men were hiding in Jamia Faridia, located in Sector E-7, a posh residential area of the capital.
"The premises were thoroughly searched without encountering any resistance but none of the wanted clerics was found," a police officer said.
Police recovered a Kalashnikov during the raid.
According to the Islamabad Capital Territory administration spokesman, acting SSP Sultan Azam Taimoori along with City Magistrate Rana Akbar Hayat conducted the raid at Jamia Faridia to arrest Maulana Abdul Aziz and Maulana Abdul Rasheed Ghazi.
Both Ghazi brothers were not found during the raid.
An FIR was registered at Aabpara police station against Maulana Abdul Aziz on March 23, 2004 under section 16-MPO and the raids were conducted under the same provisions.
The raid was the third on Madressahs in the capital in two days. A mosque and a Madressah attached to it were also raided on Tuesday.
"We are searching for the Maulvis who issued the Fatwa against the army operation and have since then disappeared," an interior ministry official said.
The clerics, among them an Imam at Lal Masjid, Islamabad's oldest mosque, have eluded arrest since issuing the edict in March, declaring that the soldiers killed during anti-terror operations in the tribal region did not deserve an Islamic burial.
A sedition case was initiated by the police against the clerics but they disappeared to escape arrest.
The edict came days after a major military offensive in remote South Waziristan tribal district in March during which the army said it killed more than 80 militants, losing 46 soldiers.
The city's main Lal Masjid is run by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam.