LAHORE: The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) claimed on Saturday to have arrested seven alleged militants belonging to two banned outfits during operations in different areas of Punjab. According to a spokesman, the CTD conducted 52 intelligence-based operations in different districts of the province to check any incident of terrorism, in which 52 suspects were interrogated and seven of them were arrested with weapons, explosives and other prohibited material. The arrested suspects include Salman, Malik Asrar Ahmed, Abdul Khaliq, Ikramullah and Najibullah of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and Sher Zaman and Sher Muhammad of militant Islamic State (IS) group, he added.
The spokesman said the CTD teams recovered 1,010 gram explosive material, one improvised explosive device (IED) bomb, two rocket shells, seven RPG booster shells, eight detonators, 13-foot piece of safety fuse wire, two prima card, a pistol, six bullets, 26 pamphlet, 37 stickers, five magazines, one mobile phone and Rs44,980 in cash from the possession of the arrested suspects. He claimed the militants had planned to carry out sabotage activities across the province and wanted to target important installations and religious places. The police registered seven cases against the alleged militants in Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Sahiwal, DG Khan and Gujranwala and shifted them to an unknown location, he added.
(Daily Dawn)
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