Lahore: Five militants with links to the
banned Pakistani Taliban have been arrested for alleged
involvement in last year`s suicide attack on the headquarters
of the powerful spy agency ISI, police said on Friday.
Lahore police chief Aslam Tareen said the five men
Sarfaraz Ahmed, Asghar Ali, Hafiz Mahmood, Shabbir Ahmed and
Muhammad Hayat are members of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan
and Al Tauheed Al-Jihad.
The mastermind of the attack, Doctor Moaz alias Umar
Kundi, was killed in a shootout with police in Faisalabad,
Tareen told a news conference.
The five militants were arrested in Shahdara area of
Punjab`s provincial capital.
Kundi had provided the five men training in Datta Khel
area of Waziristan tribal region, a known hub of Taliban and
al Qaeda elements.
Kundi also provided the men an explosives-laden
vehicle that was acquired from Hangu in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
province, Tareen said.
Three of the arrested militants participated in last
year`s attack while the other two conducted surveillance of
the target before the assault, Tareen said.
The militants were also involved in several incidents
of kidnapping for ransom to raise funds for terrorist
activities, he said.
Eight rocket launchers, four suicide vests,
Kalashnikov assault rifles, 33 grenades, pistols and
ammunition were seized from the arrested men.
Thirty-five people, seven of them Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) officials, were killed and over 200 injured
when a group of heavily armed militants stormed the spy
agency`s provincial headquarters and detonated an
explosives-laden van outside the building on May 27 last year.
The blast devastated the nearby office of a state-run
rescue service.
PTI
