LAHORE, June 9: Police claimed on Monday to have arrested four activists of the outlawed Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ), allegedly responsible for 14 killings, including three policemen.

City police chief Khwaja Khalid Farooq told a press conference that the arrested men were among the most wanted sectarian accused.

“They had planned to attack foreigners, and for that they also made an attempt to kill some Japanese residing in Johar Town some days ago but they could not execute their plan due to security reasons.” Names of some senior police officers known for killing suspects in “encounters” were also on their hit list, he quoted the accused as having confessed during interrogation.

One of the alleged terrorists, Saeed Ahmad, had been acting as Lahore chief of the banned group and had a Rs600,000 head money. His three accomplices were identified by the police chief as Hafiz Naveed, Hafiz Khalil and Abdus Samad.

The Khwaja claimed they were involved in the killing of 11 people, including two policemen, in three incidents in a day in Sheikhupura. “It was the day when Haq Nawaz of the Sipah-i-Sahaba was hanged for killing Iranian consul general Sadiq Ganji.”

Besides, the police chief said, the accused had confessed to having killed DSP Tariq Kamboh, who had arrested and killed in encounters many sectarian activists. They had also thrown grenades at the wedding ceremony of the son of DSP Syed Maratab Shah as he had arrested some of their men, said Mr Farooq.

He claimed that eight grenades, three Kalashnikovs, a pistol, seven magazines and 575 bullets were seized from them.

He said the police investigation wing chief Chaudhry Shafqat had got information about them that they had rented a house in Al-Faisal Town near new airport and had planned some terrorist activities. “That house was put under surveillance for seven days before two of the alleged terrorists were caught carrying weapons.”

Saeed was wanted by the Punjab police in 14 cases, Khalil in three and the other two in one case each. Twelve cases have been registered against them with different police stations in the province.

“We have got enough evidence and are trying to collect more to get them convicted,” he claimed.