Lahore: Pakistan police Sunday arrested twelve militants, nine of them belonging to the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) outfit, who were planning to target sensitive installations and places of worship in Lahore and other parts of Punjab province.
The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab Police conducted 54 intelligence-based operations in different parts of the Punjab province over the last week.
Subsequently, they arrested twelve militants, of which nine are active members of the TTP, two owed their allegiance to Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and one from the Islamic State (ISIS).
According to the CTD officials, the militants were planning to target sensitive installations and places of worship in Lahore and other parts of Punjab province.
During the operation, the police recovered over 4,000-gm explosives, a suicide jacket, a hand-grenade, eight detonators, twelve-feet safety fuse wire, 9.28 feet of prima card, four pistols, 20 bullets, and banned pamphlets from these militants, they said.
In recent times, Pakistan has been hit by a wave of terrorist activities orchestrated by the TTP.
In November last year, the TTP called off an indefinite ceasefire agreed with the federal government and ordered its militants to carry out attacks on Pakistan’s security forces.
January 30, a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up during the afternoon prayers in a mosque in Peshawar, killing 101 people and injuring more than 200 others.
In February, heavily-armed TTP militants stormed the Karachi Police chief’s office in Pakistan’s most populous city, sparking gunfire that killed three rebels and four others, including two police constables.
The TTP, set up as an umbrella group of several militant outfits in 2007.
The outfit, which is believed to be close to Al-Qaeda, has been blamed for several deadly attacks across Pakistan, including an attack on army headquarters in 2009, assaults on military bases, and the 2008 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.
The TTP has also orchestrated the heinous Army Public School attack in Peshawar in 2014, in which over 130 students were killed.
PTI
