LAHORE: The police with the help of intelligence agencies have captured two women and a man (for their suspicious activities) from a house at Fareed Colony near the Kot Lakhpat Central Jail.

Many condemned prisoners convicted on terrorism charges have been detained at the jail.

Officials seized a pouch rocket launcher, a bow with arrow, a box of dry fuses, batteries of different sizes, stuffed toys, CCTV cameras, mobile phones and SIMs, two laptops, an army jacket, an army shoe, a helmet and other things.

Know more: Security at central jails in Punjab intensified

Sources told Dawn the discovery was made three days ago and the suspects, who owned the house, were taken into custody for interrogation. They said it could not be established for the time being whether or not the suspects belonged to a terrorist network and were planning to strike at the Kot Lakhpat jail.

Pouch rocket launcher, dry fuses, batteries recovered

A senior police official confirmed the detention of three people but said it was premature to establish their link with any terrorist network.

He said the recovery of strange things from the residential property raised suspicion about the involvement of suspects in some anti-state activity.

He said extensive search and sweep operations were taking place in all parts of the city to detain suspicious elements, adding that searches in and around the Kot Lakhpat jail had become a regular feature keeping in view terror threats.

GUJRANWALA: Ghakkhar Mandi police claimed on Thursday to have arrested 19 Afghan nationals for living illegally in the country during an operation against them after the Peshawar school attack besides other suspects, seizing sophisticated weapons.

Station House Officer Khalil Malik told Dawn the arrested Afghan nationals were running scrap material business in the suburbs of the town, living in rented houses. He said police had sent the suspects to central jail after registration of a case.

He said some suspects had thrown a bag of weapons on a heap of garbage in Ansari Town which the police recovered the bag and seized three pistols, a carbine and a rifle along 13 cartridge and dozens of rounds.

He said a separate case had been registered against unidentified suspects.

SIALKOT: Police have arrested 11 Afghan nationals for illegally residing in the country.

According to Sialkot City DSP Maqsood Ahmed Lone, the Afghan nationals had been residing in Pakistan but they could not produce any legal document for their stay.

Police have registered the separate cases against them under the 14 Foreign Act and sent them behind the bars. Further investigations are underway.

Police had also arrested 48 Afghan nationals from Sialkot, Daska, Sambrial, Uggoki and Pasrur for residing there illegally against them a few days back.

DERA GHAZI KHAN: At least six suspects, including two Afghan nationals, were arrested in a joint operation carried out by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) and police.

Sources said security in Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur had been beefed up in the wake of Peshawar school attack.

Dera Ghazi Khan district shares its boundary with Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while Rajanpur district shares its boundary with Sindh. Their all entry and exit points, including Triman, Bewata and Shahwali, had been manned and security agencies before starting operation in the localities against suspected terrorists.

Dera Ghazi Khan District Police Officer Ghulam Mubashir Maikin told Dawn six suspects, including two residents of Jalalabad, Afghanistan, had been arrested.

He further claimed quick response force of the CTD had been deployed at all sensitive areas of the district. Both the arrested Afghanis were carrying Pakistani computerised national identity cards (CNICs).

During a raid on a seminary in Rujhan tehsil in Rajanpur, Shahwali police claimed to have recovered Jihadi literature but the suspects nominated in the FIR managed to flee from the seminary before the raid.

The seminary was named after the late cleric of Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, Abdullah Ghazi and it has the grave of Rasheed Ghazi, son of Abdullah who was killed in military crackdown on Lal Masjid.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2014