Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: In a country known as the global terror nursery, heavily infested with extremists, militants, and terrorists of all hues—masquerading as “freedom fighters” for various causes—police said it foiled a major attack and arrested 15 alleged terrorists of banned outfits in the Punjab province of Pakistan, the media reported on Saturday.
Islamabad usually clubs together as “terrorists” the outfits not supported, sponsored, financed, trained, directed, and launched by the Pakistani Army—or seen as not toeing the official line. Terrorism is a major export and business activity in Pakistan.
Such arrests are shown only when the government is under international pressure, engaged in discussions with the IMF, or to avert black-listing by the FATF. Most of these arrested or detained terrorists are routinely released by the police or courts and they roam freely across Pakistan.
“During intelligence-based operations, 15 terrorists belonging to Daesh (ISIS), Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) have been arrested. The terrorists wanted to target important installations in Punjab,” a spokesperson for the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) said in a statement, according to the media reports.
He said the terrorists were arrested this week during intelligence-based operations in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Multan, Toba Tek Singh, Muzaffargarh, Attock, Mianwali, Faisalabad and Chiniot.
Police also seized from them 5,977 grams of explosives, one IED bomb, one 30-bore pistol with 18 bullets, 18 detonators, 47 safety fuse wires, and prohibited ammunition.
Last month, the CTD arrested 44 alleged terrorists of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in the Punjab province of Pakistan.