Punjab Home Minister Colonel Shuja Khanzada (Retd) Tuesday said that joint teams of Pakistan Army and law enforcement agencies under the National Action Plan (NAP) had succeeded to unearth and neutralise an important network of terrorists by arresting its five out of eight members.
Addressing a press conference here he said, the network committed suicide attacks in Lahore at SIU of the CID Police in Model Town in 2010; at main gate of District Police Lines Qala Gujjar Singh on February 17, 2015 and on two churches in Youhana Abad area on March 15, 2015. The network also committed suicide attacks on an Imam Bargah, a police bus and some other places in Karachi as well.
Shuja Khanzada said, "The network was having link with Mehsud Group of Tehrik-e-Taliban in Afghanistan and then to India being its supporter, financer and reporting centre, therefore the RAW's major role is obvious in operations of this network. The network was also working for al Qaeda and TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan), he mentioned.
Five arrested members/facilitators of the network are Sana Ullah alias Hassan Punjabi and Waqas belonging to Bahawalnagar district of Punjab, and Imran Mahsud, Sheikh Qanoon and Irar-ud-Din belonging to South Waziristan Agency (SWA). They all were settled in Karachi, he elaborated. While, three others members of the network including Rana Majeed, Qari Ilyas alias Abu Bakar and Khalid Zaman alias Taj Ali absconded to Afghanistan. Since the ISI and Afghanistan's intelligence agency are in strong liaison for intelligence sharing and the absconding terrorists of the network would soon be arrested, he hoped.
The Punjab Minister said that network also had the future tasks of targeting army and government installations/institutions, individuals, political figures, markets and main public places in Lahore and Karachi. However, the network has now completely been neutralised and was no more operational.
He said, the network planned the Youhana Abad terrorists attack in Afghanistan from where Qari Ilyas alias Abu Bakar and Khalid Zaman alias Taj Ali came to Pakistan through Fata and then to Tablighi Markaz Raiwind. They held a meeting with Sana Ullah alias Hassan Punjabi outside the Tablighi Markaz and ordered him to manufacture four suicide jackets of eight kilograms each and also provided him explosive materials. He further said that Hassan Punjabi was an expert in explosives/IEDs fixing in jackets, motorcycles, cars etc, and he got six-month training from Afghanistan. Imran Mahsud and Irar-ud-Din were carrying out recce of the targeted churches in Youhana Abad. Waqas provided his CNIC for getting room on rent near Youhana Abad where they all were hiding and the jackets were manufactured.
On March 15, 2015, the suicide bombers were armed in Amar Sidhu area of Lahore and from where they were brought to Youhana Abad and they attacked the churches by detonating their explosives-filled jackets. To a question, Khanzada said, five suicide bombers were killed in the three suicide attacks by this network in Lahore. Shuja Khanzada lauded the efforts of the Apex Committee headed by Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, the teams of Pak Army, police and other law enforcement agencies for landmark achievement in the effective intelligence based operations under National Action Plan (NAP) since December.