ISLAMABAD, Aug 15: The Interior Ministry has claimed that it thwarted a series of suicide attacks in Islamabad and other parts of the country.
“Intelligence and law-enforcement agencies busted a gang of suicide bombers who had planned to carry out terrorist attacks on the country’s Independence Day, Interior Ministry spokesman and Director General National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema told a media briefing here on Wednesday.
He said the gang had been arrested with a large quantity of explosives. He said intelligence agencies had taken into custody the ringleader of the gang on information divulged by other members of the terrorist group during investigations. He gave no further details.
Brig Cheema said that all four provincial home departments had to further tighten the security and strictly monitor the activities of suspected suicide bombers in the country.
The threat indicators were never so high in the past as it were this time on Independence Day, he added.
The spokesman said that due to timely warnings by intelligence agencies and foolproof security measures taken by the federal and provincial governments, no untoward incident was reported from anywhere except for some stray attempts by a handful of subversive and anti-state elements who caused damage to pylons and fired some rockets.
He said the law-enforcement agencies would remain in a state of high alert until the menace of terrorism is eliminated from our society.
He said the killing of a Frontier Corps soldier by militants in South Waziristan was a gruesome act.
