Islamabad  - Pakistani soldiers have seized 20 people connected to a disbanded militant group accused of orchestrating the Mumbai terrorist attacks, media reports said Monday.

Troops made the arrests Sunday afternoon after storming a camp used by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the charity wing of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which India blamed for the November 26 attacks that killed more than 170 people, the Dawn newspaper reported.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa previously claimed it had no connection with the LeT and was focusing on religious and charitable work.

The camp, which was located on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, was previously occupied by members of the LeT.

Dawn said an LeT commander, Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi, was also detained during the "quiet" operation.

Several media sources reported the raid but there were conflicting figures regarding the people taken into custody. According to GEO news channel, eight people were arrested.

Pakistan's Ministry of Interior and the military's public relations directorate did not confirm the crackdown.

According to Dawn, ambulances from various hospitals in Muzaffarabad were called to the camp site, but no casualties were evacuated during the operation.

"I saw an army helicopter hovering over the area and around 5 pm, I heard two or three loud explosions," an unidentified woman living in the area was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

There were also unconfirmed reports of a gunfight, Dawn said.

Indian accusations of a Pakistani link to the Mumbai bloodshed increased tension between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, who have been at war three times since they both gained independence from Britain 61 years ago.

Islamabad is under great international pressure to urgently address India's concerns in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying, "I made very clear to the Pakistanis that we are a friend ... but when something like this happens, the United States expects Pakistan to act." (dpa)