Lahore: Pakistani police on Tuesday claimed to
have arrested six alleged Taliban terrorists involved in an
attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team here in March 2009 and
said their original plan was to kidnap players and hold them
hostage to seek release of their leaders.
Lahore police chief Aslam Tareen said the arrested men
belonged to the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and were
residents of Toba Tek Singh and Bahawalpur in Punjab province
and Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province.
Eight persons were killed and over 20 others injured,
including several Sri Lankan players, when about a dozen
terrorists ambushed the team`s motorcade at a busy traffic
roundabout in Lahore two years ago.
Tareen claimed a man named Amanullah alias Asadullah
was the mastermind of the attack.
The other arrested men were identified as Ubaidullah
alias Zubair, Muhsan Rasheed, Muhammad Javed Anwar alias
Chaudhry, Qari Muhammad Ashfaq and Umaidur Rehman Qamar alias
Zubair.
"Four of them took part in the armed attack at
Lahore`s Liberty Chowk," Tareen told reporters in a press
conference here.
Suicide vests, rocket launchers, Kalashnikov assault
rifles, grenades and other weapons were seized from them, he
said.
Tareen said: "The actual plan of the terrorists was
to kidnap the Sri Lankan team and hold them hostage till the
release of some important terrorist leaders arrested by law
enforcement agencies".
"However, they had to change their plan when security
guards offered strong resistance."
A dozen suspects had been arrested in connection with
the attack so far, he said.
Aqeel alias Doctor Usman, Khalidur Rehman alias Anda
and Usman alias Gull Khan were arrested when they carried out
an attack on the army`s General Headquarters in Rawalpindi.
Two other key suspects, Zubair alias Naik Muhammad and
Abul Wahab alias Umer, too had been arrested and their trial
was underway.
Tareen said the alleged terrorists were arrested on
the basis of information gleaned from other detained militants
and from CCTV footage of the attack on the cricket team.
He said the weapons used in the attack were brought
from Faisalabad.
"Suspects Amanullah and his accomplice Mahmoodul
Hassan brought the weapons from Miranshah in North Waziristan
and stocked them in Faisalabad, from where they transported
them to Lahore for the attack," he said.
PTI
