Terrorists arrested: Hostile agency involved in Lahore blast: Buzdar

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar revealed on Monday that a hostile intelligence agency was involved in the Lahore's Johar Town blast which claimed three lives, adding terrorists involved were arrested in the last four days during raids.

While addressing a news conference, the CM termed the arrests a big success of the Punjab government and thanked all the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) for their efforts. "It was found that a hostile intelligence agency was involved which provided financial help to this network," he said, adding: "All high-profile cases have been traced and suspects arrested."

Elaborating, he said a special investigation team was constituted by the Punjab government to investigate the Johar Town blast; the CTD investigated scientifically and the perpetrators of the blast were identified within 16 hours. All the international and local actors have been identified and terrorists have been arrested within four days by conducting raids in different areas.

The CM maintained that the explosive material was fixed in the backside of the vehicle; all the pieces of evidence had been gleaned from the local terrorists which proved that international characters were involved in terror financing of that terrorists' network. According to the facts, an agency of the enemy country is directly involved in this activity and it provided all the financial support to this network.

IG Police Inam Ghani said on the occasion that he also examined the crime scene, and the Punjab Police and the CTD successfully dug out the whole network of terrorists. All the members of that network were under the custody of the law, he added. He disclosed that 10 Pakistani male and female citizens, attached with that network, had been arrested. The mastermind had also been identified, he said.

A joint investigation team is conducting investigations and arrested criminals will be given exemplary punishment.

To a question, he said "no criminal is included in the fourth schedule. The vehicle snatched in 2010 was recovered in 2011 and now it was being used on 'superdari' (custody). One arrested criminal from KPK fluently speaks Punjabi."

The police stopped this vehicle and checked it at a picket and its footage is available. The last terrorist activity occurred in Punjab in November 2020 and now the Johar Town blast was aimed at creating a bad international image. However, the police and CTD worked hard to trace and arrest the terrorists, concluded the IG.

Law Minister Raja Basharat, SACM Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, ACS (Home), Additional IG CTD and others were also present.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021