TAXILA, July 12: The Taxila police have arrested the mastermind of August 8, 2002 attack on a Christian hospital chapel here in which six people mostly female nurses were killed and dozens injured.

Talking to mediapersons, subdivisional police officer Chaudhry Yousaf Shahid said the accused, identified as Safeer, a resident of Kharian, was member of a banned religious outfit.

He said the accused was arrested from his hideout in Lahore during a raid conducted on a tip-off.

The official said the accused was also the ring leader of the eight-member gang of religious extremists who carried out the grenade attack at the chapel inside the Christian hospital premises.

He said six out of the eight criminals - Ayaz, Qaiser, Abu Bakr, Sabir, Toufeeq Khan and Asif Raza - had already been arrested and sentenced to death by an Anti-Terrorism Court. While the eighth member of the gang, Nazeer Ahmed alias Usama of Bahawalnagar, was still at large.

Two killed: A woman and a young boy were killed in two separate incidents here in the jurisdiction of the Taxila police station.

In the first incident, the woman was axed to death allegedly by her husband over some domestic dispute in village Nikko.

Police said that Wali Khan, an Afghan national, exchanged some harsh words with his wife Bibi Jan, which resulted in the death of the latter.