‘Terror plot’ foiled; woman among nine suspects held

Afghan currency recovered from suspects, along with weapons, explosives

LAHORE:

Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Punjab foiled a major terror plot on Eid-ul-Azha by arresting nine terror suspects linked to a banned outfit during operations across different areas of Punjab.

According to a Counter-Terrorism Department spokesman, the Department conducted 35 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) in different districts of the province to effectively deal with any potential incident of terrorism, in which 36 suspects were interrogated and 9 terror suspects were arrested with weapons, explosives and other prohibited materials.

The arrested terrorists included two members of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), identified as Adnan Yusuf and Muhammad Luqman; two members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, identified as Muhammad Salman Iftikhar and Abdul Halim; and five members of Daesh, identified as Shiraz Alam, Abdahu Shah, Balqis Bibi, Shahid Ahmed and Muhammad Umar.

Counter-Terrorism Department raid teams seized four hand grenades, three feet of Primacord, a 30-bore pistol with 42 rounds of, 21 stickers and a flag of a banned organization, 1 laptop, 1 tablet phone, 2 mobile phones, 500 Afghan Afghanis and Rs37,370 in cash were seized from the terror suspects.

The spokesman claimed that the suspects planned acts of sabotage across the province and were targeting important installations and religious sites.

Police have registered five cases against the arrested terror suspects in DG Khan, Multan and Bahawalpur and shifted them to an unknown location.

The spokesman further said that 124 combing operations were also conducted during this week with the help of local police and security agencies, 5,814 persons were checked, 11 suspects were arrested, 14 FIRs were registered and 7 recoveries were made.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28^th, 2023.