Staff Report
LAHORE: Pakistan security officials said on Saturday that seven suspected terrorists linked to proscribed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had been arrested in a crackdown in the Punjab province of the country after a suicide attack in Islamabad.
The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) said that a major terror attempt had been foiled in Punjab province. The officials said that a huge quantity of detonators, weapons, and explosives had also been recovered from the suspects’ possession.
The alleged terrorists have been identified as Khalid Mahmood, Shafiullah, Muhammad Usman, Mohsin Waqar, Hafiz Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Rafiq, and Luqman. Cases against these terrorists were filed in Dera Ghazi Khan, Gujranwala, Multan, and Bahawalpur.
Islamabad Suicide blast
The latest arrests came a day following the banned TTP accepted responsibility for a suicide attack in Islamabad, the first such attack in the country’s capital city for years. Banned TTP called off a stop-start ceasefire with the government of Pakistan in November.
Earlier, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif called for a security operation against the banned TTP after militants attacked CTD Centre, Bannu. The minister said that there is a spillover impact from the Afghanistan situation, and that is also affecting Pakistan. He added that they have to launch the operation.
