LAHORE, Feb 5: Following interrogation of five members of a banned outfit arrested on Sunday, teams of intelligence agencies and police on Monday raided several parts of Punjab in search of their three accomplices who had escaped arrest.

Sources privy to investigation told Dawn on Monday that the accused had disclosed that one of their members was in Faisalabad with a huge cache of weapons to be used in suicide bombing and sectarian violence.

The accused were training potential suicide bombers, sources quoted one of interrogators as saying.

However, the interrogators found no links between the accused and Al-Qaeda and other international terrorist organisations, sources said.

On Sunday, Saddar investigation police, on a tip-off, raided a house in Chuhng and arrested Rizwan, Ziauddin alias Fiaz, Muhammad Alam alias Nadir, Abdul Sattar alias Riaz, and Amjad alias Kala, all from the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi. Rizwan is believed to be the head of the outfit since the arrest of Akram Lahori in 2002.

Rizwan, who received his primary education and militant training from the tribal area and Afghanistan, was wanted in 34 cases, including planning of two suicide bombings at Imambargahs in Karachi and Sialkot.

The accused also killed two Shia scholars in Karachi and Lahore in 2006.

Rizwan is also wanted by the police for allegedly murdering a police constable whose name could not be ascertained, inspector Miraajul Hassan in Karachi and injured CIA officer Farrukh Awan.

He also killed his own fellow, Irfan, suspecting him of treachery. He along with his accomplices attacked a bus and killed seven people in Karachi.