Over 150 raids carried out in Punjab province in 24 hrs.
Over 150 raids carried out in Punjab province in 24 hrs.
Over 5,000 people were rounded up by security forces since the Easter Sunday bombing in Lahore with more than 200 still in custody, Pakistan’s Punjab government said on Tuesday, even as Taliban militants behind the attack taunted the Prime Minister, saying the “war has reached his doorstep”.
“In the past 24 hours, the Punjab police had conducted 56 operations, the counterterrorism department 16 and intelligence agencies in collaboration with the local police carried out 88 raids in different parts of the province and rounded up a total 5,221 people,” Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah told a press conference.
Of those detained, 5,005 have been released after “data verification” while “over 200 suspects are in custody of the law enforcement agencies,” he said.
Talking about the investigation, Mr Sanaullah said a joint investigation team headed by the SSP of the counterterrorism department has been formed to probe the incident.
The Pakistan Army had on Monday said it has launched a crackdown in Punjab on terrorists suspected to be involved in the attack at the Gulshan-i-Iqbal park that claimed 74 lives, mostly women and children, and injured over 300 others.
The raids have been carried out on the basis of technical evidence and initial information gathered by intelligence agencies in the aftermath of the bombing.
Army Chief General Raheel Sharif has ordered raids on hideouts of terrorists in the province.
Intelligence agencies led operations focusing on seminaries and other targets linked to extremist and terror groups, mostly in Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Muzzafargarh and some other districts of south Punjab.
“Personnel of the Army and the Rangers carried out the operations. A number of arrests were said to have been made in addition to the recovery of arms and explosives,” military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Asim Bajwa said.
“Operations will continue with more leads coming in,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani Taliban faction — Jamaatul Ahrar — behind the bombing warned that the terror attack was a “message” to the government about their “arrival” in Punjab, as the death toll rose to 74 on Tuesday after two more persons succumbed to their injuries.
The group’s spokesperson even taunted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Twitter. “After the Lahore attack, Nawaz Sharif repeated old words to give himself false assurances,” he wrote. “Nawaz Sharif should know that war has reached his doorstep, and God willing the mujahideen will be the winners in this war,” the spokesperson said.
A suicide bomber — believed to be in his 20s — blew himself at Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, which is one of the popular parks in Lahore, a relatively peaceful city in Pakistan.
He struck at a time when thousands of people were visiting the park on account of Easter.
