MARDAN: Officials of the Courter-Terrorism Department on Tuesday claimed to have arrested two suspected terrorists, including the mastermind of a suicide blast that took place at the entrance gate of the Mardan courts in 2016.

The CTD officials said they raided a hideout on a tip-off and arrested the mastermind of suicide blast identified as Dawakhir along with his accomplice namely Mohammad Raziq, according to a press release issued here.

They said the CTD personnel also recovered explosives, a hand grenade and a 30-bore pistol from the hideout.

The officials said preliminary investigations revealed that the terrorists belonged to foreign spy agencies namely RAW and NDS. They said cases had been registered against the arrested persons under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The officials claimed that the terrorists had also disclosed names of their other accomplices during investigation.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2021