Pak police hunting for 20 bored, rich and dangerous wives of Karachi

Police in Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi have reportedly launched a hunt for at least 20 rich and bored wives accused of funding the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attacks and arranging wives for its followers.

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A report appearing in Al Jazeera quoted security officials, as saying that the search was launched after police arrested one suspect who they believed had financed a gun attack on a bus carrying Pakistani Shias that killed 44 people in May.

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It was the first attack claimed by ISIL inside Pakistan.

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Al Jazeera quoted Raja Umar Khattab, the chief of the counter-terrorism unit in Pakistan's Sindh Province, as saying that the suspect had confessed that his wife had established a religious organisation called Al Zikra Academy in Karachi to fund ISIL activities.

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Khattab further revealed that this dangerous group of 20 women from well-off families had also been distributing USBs containing ISIL videos, and also soliciting support for terror organizations.

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The women include the wife and mother-in-law of Saad Aziz, the main suspect in the May killings, and a graduate of one of Pakistan's top business schools, who is currently in detention.

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Pakistan has been waging a war against several Taliban factions in its Northern Territories for more than a decade, but the attack claimed by ISIL supporters is a recent phenomenon.

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The ISIL's main areas of operation are in Syria and Iraq, where it controls large portions of both countries, and in Libya where its fighters have established a foothold in the city of Sirte.

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The group is also active in Yemen. The Boko Haram terrorist group in Nigeria has also pledged its allegiance to ISIL's self-proclaimed "Caliph" Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.