LAHORE, March 4: Police have arrested dozens of people during a countrywide hunt for terrorists involved in Tuesday’s deadly attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team.

According to police sources, two men — Baber Shahzad and Dilawar — were arrested from a village in Rahim Yar Khan and three others, suspected to be ‘facilitators’ of the assailants, in Lahore.

Police traced them with the help of a cellphone and subscriber identification modules (SIM) found near the Liberty roundabout after the attackers had escaped, the sources said.

“One of the arrested suspects is a resident of Rehmanpura and he had a photograph of one of the attackers,” the sources said.

They said the suspects had disclosed that the terrorists had stayed in the city for a month to plan the assault.

Two suspects were with the Crimes Investigation Agency’s Kotwali division and the attackers were expected to be nabbed in a couple of days, the sources said.

They also said police were tracing the people whose numbers had been retrieved from the SIM and raids were being carried out to arrest them.

The two suspects were arrested in Rahim Yar Khan with the help of the SIMs. One of the SIMs had been purchased in the name of Baber.

Police had detained several people after the attack but did not divulge their number or identities.

Deputy Inspector General (Investigation) Mushtaq Ahmed Sokhaira refused to confirm the arrest of any facilitator.

He said the terrorists had snatched a cellphone from a citizen and thrown it away.

He said police were working on different leads, a large number of items had been collected from the attack site, including weapons, explosives, walkie-talkies, three rickshaws, two other vehicles and a large quantity of dry fruit and foodstuff.

“The police are yet to arrest any of the terrorists, but certain leads may take us to them,” he said.

He said investigations carried out so far indicated that the attackers belonged to Punjab and the NWFP-tribal areas .

Senior Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Zulfikar Hameed said police were focussing attention on the sketches of four attackers drawn with the help of television footage, a detained rickshaw driver and witnesses.

Police issued the sketches of the men aged between 20 and 25 years.

An official said the driver, Aslam, had suggested that the two men who had used his rickshaw to escape were Punjabi speaking with fair complexion.

They dropped two bags with clothes, detonators and walkie-talkies after disembarking at Nadeem Shaheed Chowk in the Cantonment area.

The official said several people who had been detained during raids in different parts of the city were being questioned for their possible links with the assailants.

Police handed over Toor Agha, former owner of a white car used by the terrorists, to an intelligence agency. The car was found at the roundabout with time devices. Mr Agha had sold his car some time ago.

Top police officials held several meetings to review the investigation after they were given a 48-hour deadline by the provincial administration to arrest the attackers.

According to the sources, a crackdown was launched in Makka Colony in Naseerabad to hunt down the terrorists and their accomplices. Police arrested three suspects from a hotel and seized weapons.

Another suspect was arrested from Muslim Town on information provided by detained persons.

Police, with the help of intelligence agencies, detained three persons from Lalyani area of Kasur and seized wireless sets. Said to be linked with Indian intelligence agency RAW, they crossed the border illegally.

Raids were being carried out across the country and there were reports that police had picked up several suspects.

Around four dozen people were detained in different parts of Lahore for questioning. Most of them were Pukhtuns and they were released after questioning.

According to an official report issued on Wednesday, police had seized rocket launchers, hand-grenades, inactive timer bombs, rifles, pistols, walkie-talkies, bullets, empty shells, knives, suicide jackets, magazines, foodstuff and other items from 14 places by Tuesday night.
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