Three men planning attack on Ashura arrested

Police arrest suspected member of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi who was planning an attack on the ninth and tenth of Muharram.

KARACHI: Police in Karachi on Wednesday foiled a terror plot planned for the ninth and tenth of Muharram when they arrested three suspected members of the banned outfit Lashkar-i-Jhangvi.

Police later reported the arrests of two more suspected suicide bombers who were planning an attack on a Muharram procession. The two arrests were made from Orangi Town.

Earlier, while addressing the media in Karachi, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Raja Umar said a suspect, Imamuddin alias Muawia, was arrested from the Ayub Goth area of the city.

The SSP informed that explosive material including suicide bomb jackets, pistols, Kalashnikovs, hand grenades and bullets were also seized in the operation.

Umar said the arrested man had been trained in Afghanistan as a specialist in placing bombs in vehicles and was involved in the Sheraton hotel blast of 2002.

Lahore lacking security arrangement

Administrators of Ashura are not satisfied with the security arrangements in Lahore where 4,000 processions are expected.

The interior ministry has put all law enforcement agencies on high alert and declared more than 180 places in the Lahore as sensitive.

Although over 12,000 policemen are to be deployed to provide security to participants of the processions, local administrators of the processions say no security measures have been implemented so far.

They say no walkthrough gates have been installed or any policemen deployed. They have demanded the government implement the Muharram security plan as soon as possible.