RAWALPINDI, Aug 18: Personnel of law-enforcement agencies arrested three suspected terrorists near Chaklala Airbase on Saturday in connection with the Kamra attack and picked up from various parts of the country relatives and associates of four attackers who have been identified.

According to sources, the suspects held in Rawalpindi were taken to an undisclosed location for interrogation.

When contacted, Rawalpindi city police chief Azhar Hameed Khokhar said: “We cannot share information with the media about the action because the matter is very sensitive. Wait for a proper time.”

He said police had conducted many raids since the attack but did not want to share details with the media.

About 25 people were taken into custody during a search operation carried out in Rawalpindi’s airport, R.A. Bazaar, cantonment and Sadiqabad areas and about 40 in Wah Cantonment.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the district intelligence committee, presided over by DCO Saqib Zafar and attended by Airport Manager Ashfaq Hussain, SSP (operations) Dr Akhter Abbas and officials of Military Intelligence and special branch of Punjab police, decided to improve security in and around the Benazir Bhutto International Airport and Chaklala Airbase.

It suggested deployment of security officials in plain clothes around the airbase, especially in adjoining civilian population areas.

Yaqoob Malik adds from Attock: According to sources, four of the nine attackers killed by security personnel have been identified through Nadra record and their connections with other people traced with the help of data of their mobile phones found at the scene of the attack in the PAF Minhas Base.

The relatives and other people connected with the terrorists were arrested from different parts of the country, including Taxila, for interrogation.

The sources said that interrogation of the arrested people and the phone data would help trace the network of militants, reportedly belonging to the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, responsible for Thursday’s attack.

About 10 suspects held on Friday are also being interrogated.

District police chief Mohammad Hilal Khan said that investigation was being carried out in coordination with others security agencies and soon the entire militant network involved in the attack would be traced.

Answering a question about the disclosure by Interior Minister Rehman Malik that four of the assailants had been identified, the DPO said the government had so far not communicated this information to the district police.

The official said such incidents were investigated at many levels and a four-member police team was carrying out the probe in coordination with other security agencies after the Attock Saddar police station registered two terrorism cases against the nine assailants.