RAWALPINDI: Local police staged a mock exercise at their lines headquarters on Wednesday for six curious Scotland Yard officers who wanted to know how the police busted a terrorist plan in the city in June last year.

Police sources said their curiosity was aroused by media reports that the police detected the formidable arsenal of explosives and ammunition the terrorists had hidden in a large gas cylinder.

Led by Mr. Douglas McKenna, the Scotland Yard team watched the police re-enact their feat and also interviewed officer Haroon Joyia, who, as SP Potohar Division, had made the recovery on June 16, 2013 in Naseerabad locality of Rawalpindi.

Regional Police Officer Akhtar Umar Hayat Laleka told Dawn that the Scotland Yard team analysed how our police go about it and the pros and cons of their actions.

“They (the British police team) discussed the case in detail with our officers, especially with reference to the forensic evidences since convictions were made on the basis of forensic evidence,” he said.

RPO Laleka said the Scotland Yard team’s visit was connected with sharing training experiences and practices between the Pakistani and the British police.

Two suspects Inamuddin and Abdul Khaliq, belonging to North Waziristan, were coming to Rawalpindi when police stopped their car at Choki Hameedan.

Both were arrested after a gas cylinder in the boot of the car yielded two suicide jackets, two telescopes, four Kalashnikov rifles, pistols and ammunition, 24 detonators and 20 hand grenades, 17 of them made in USA and three in Russia.

Police had linked the two terrorists to the Baitullah Mehsud group.

Officer Laleka, however, acknowledged that the police were unable to neither track down their links in Punjab nor reach the persons who were to receive the arsenal.

“The arrested men were carrying new cell phones, with new SIMs, which made it difficult for police to trace their contacts in Punjab,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2014