LAHORE: North cantonment police on Tuesday arrested a woman and her neighbour for making a hoax call about the presence of a suspected terrorist in a Lahore-bound flight coming from the UAE.

According to Cantonment police, they received a call late on Monday from a woman, Sonia, who claimed her husband, Dildar, was arriving here by a private airlines flight from Muscat, carrying explosives.

Alarmed by the call, the police passed on the information to the Airport Security Force that took Dildar into custody as soon as the flight from Muscat landed at Lahore airport. However, despite a thorough search of Dilbar and his luggage no explosives were recovered.

Meanwhile, the Cantonment police arrested Sonia who confessed to have made a hoax call to the police in connivance with her neighbour Kashif to implicate Dildar in a terrorism case. She also confessed that in the absence of her husband she had developed relations with Kashif and they both wanted to get rid of Dildar, who worked as a labourer in Muscat. The police also arrested Kashif.

Police said the duo was also involved in a similar incident in which a hoax call was made to Lahore Railway Station about the presence of a bomb there. Two separate cases have been registered against the suspects with Sarwar Road police and Railway police.

North Cantonment SHO Shabbir Husain told Dawn a police team was formed to arrest the suspects. He said the police were investigating whether the duo had any links with any terrorist organisation.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2014