Three Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terrorists arrested in Pakistan

Three terrorists belonging to the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group who were planning to carry out terror attacks have been arrested from Pakistan’s Punjab province, police said on Tuesday.

The terrorists were arrested after the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab Police got a tip-off about their presence in Gujranwala district, 95 kilometres from Lahore.

“The Counter Terrorism Department of Punjab Police (CTD) received credible information that three terrorists belonging to proscribed organisation Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) were present at main GT Road, district Gujranwala and planning terrorist activity in the city of Gujranwala,” the police said.

“The CTD team raided the place on Monday evening and arrested the three terrorists,” said a CTD statement issued here on Tuesday. It said the terrorists have been identified as Muhammad Saqib, Abdul Malik and Mujahid Iqbal.

Explosive materials, detonator and safety fuse have been recovered from them, it said. An investigation has been launched after lodging a case at a police station in Gujranwala, it said.

LeJ chief Malik Ishaq was killed by police a few years ago along with a number of other accomplices. The LeJ operates in Pakistan and Afghanistan and is an offshoot of anti-Shia party Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan.

It has claimed responsibility for various mass casualty attacks against the Shia community in Pakistan, including multiple bombings that killed over 200 Hazara Shias in Quetta in 2013. It has also been linked to the abduction of slain US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002, and the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in 2009.

Source: Deccan Herald