A variety of explosive materials found including suicide vests, detonators, fuse wire, prohibited stickers
LAHORE:
The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on Tuesday arrested 16 suspected terrorists, including a suicide bomber, during Intelligence Based Operations (IBOs) conducted across several cities in Punjab, a CTD spokesperson said.
According to the spokesman, a total of 113 IBOs were conducted across the province, targeting areas including Khushab, Mianwali, Rawalpindi, Jhang, Bhakkar, Lahore, Faisalabad, Chakwal, Toba Tek Singh, Hafizabad and Gujranwala.
Officials said a “dangerous suicide bomber linked to Fitna al-Khawarij” was arrested in Jhang along with a suicide vest and explosive material.
Fitna al-Khawarij is the state-designated term for the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
In a separate operation in Sargodha, a suspect identified as Malkay Khan was detained for alleged involvement in attacks on security installations.
The spokesman said the suspects had planned to target police checkpoints, but the plans were “thwarted through timely action”.
A number of explosive materials were found during the operations, including suicide vests, detonators, fuse wires, prohibited stickers, prohibited literature and cash.
Some of the arrested suspects were identified as Moin Khan, Asil Din, Nasir Shah, Marjan, Malle Khan, Naseeb Khan, Ali Abdullah, Saifullah, Arif Khan and Abrarul Haq, CTD said.
Read also: 13 terrorists killed in two separate IBOs in KP, military says
The spokesman added that 2,830 combing operations were also carried out during the week, with 95,755 people questioned and 190 suspects arrested.
The CTD said operations against militant networks would continue across the province without interruption.
In January, six terrorists were killed during a CTD operation in Mianwali after coming under fire from their own co-conspirators. During the operation, the suspects opened fire on CTD personnel. In the exchange of fire, six militants were killed by shots fired by their own associates, while eight others managed to escape.
The CTD said it recovered a suicide vest, three hand grenades, six machine guns, about 200 bullets and other explosive materials from the site.
In December last year, Punjab Superintendent of Police Dr. Usman Anwar a high security alert across the province and ordered immediate launch of sweeping and combing operations in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan and other districts across the province.
The IGP ordered profiling and data verification of all persons entering the province from other regions. He had said that monitoring of all banned organisations, including the TLP, must continue regularly and door-knocking campaigns should be intensified to trace potential militants and abusers.
