Two more Faisalabad blast suspects arrested

Same group behind Lahore Model Town attack exactly one year ago.

LAHORE:

Law enforcement agencies believe they have in custody the man who triggered the car bomb blast in Faisalabad and arrested two of his alleged accomplices on Wednesday, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Usman Ghani was arrested at Ghamti Chowk trying to flee the scene shortly after the blast on Tuesday. He had five mobile phones SIM cards and a remote control device in his possession.

wTwo more suspects were later arrested on the basis of information extracted from Ghani. The suspects are from Kabeerwala.

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and IG Javed Iqbal confirmed the arrests.

Sources said that the car used in the attack was fitted with explosives in Waziristan one day earlier and was driven by a man named Asif. The original plan was to attack the nearby Inter Services Intelligence building. First, gunmen would open fire and throw hand grenades at the guards, then the car would ram into the building.

However, the sources said, the presence of two huge metal barriers outside the building threw off the driver, and he stopped the car at the nearby CNG station to reconsider the plan. At this point, they said, Ghani set off the explosives, killing Asif and at least 25 others and injuring 131 people.

The sources said the group behind the attack was the same that carried out the car bomb attack on the offices of the Special Intelligence Agency interrogation centre in Model Town, Lahore, exactly one year earlier on March 8, 2010.

Meanwhlie, rescue teams finished clearing the debris from the site of the blast and found no more casualties. The bodies of 16 of the 26 people killed have been identified and handed over to their families for burial. Six people remain in critical condition.

Additional reporting by Ghulam Dastgeer from Faisalabad

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2011.