The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing the Parade Lane suicide attack has arrested 17 facilitators of the terrorist attack including two women, besides father of a suicide bomber. All the detained persons were taken to unknown place for further questioning.
Sources privy to the investigation said the law enforcement agencies had recovered a mobile prepaid card from the Parade Lane during the efforts to collect the samples of explosive and other evidences. The card was loaded by one of the facilitators of the suicide bombers in his cell-phone and calls were made from this mobile to Mirali Tehsil of North Waziristan Agency (SWA) and Afghanistan.
On the basis of information collected from this cell-phone record, law enforcement agencies started arresting the people who facilitated the execution of the terror strike, sources said, adding that 27 persons including two women were arrested from the twin cities and Nowshera district of NWFP.
Sources revealed that from the footage attained from the Peshawar Motorway Toll Plaza, it was learnt that two women were also on board the car, when it entered Motorway. But the exit record of the car was not available at Islamabad Toll Plaza as the car entered Rawalpindi from Chakri interchange to avoid strict checking.
Two women, who travelled with terrorists from Peshawar to Rawalpindi, were identified from the footage of closed-circuit camera of Toll Plaza and later were arrested from Rawalpindi during the search operation. Sources said the investigation team after thorough checking of the items collected from Parade Lane, have succeeded in chasing one suicide bomber namely Saifullah belonging to Khal village of Malakand Division.
They said that LEAs responded quickly and raided the house of the suicide bomber and detained his father Norullah and shifted him to some unknown place for investigation. They said the detained men and women are being questioned and there is possibility of more arrests from different parts of the country.