LAHORE: The Punjab Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) claimed on Saturday to have arrested nine suspected militants belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and so-called Islamic State (IS) group from different districts of the province.

The CTD Punjab claimed to have conducted 42 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) in different districts of the province to avert any untoward incident, interrogated 45 suspects and arrested nine of them.

According to a CTD spokesman, a team arrested a suspect identified as Roman Ullah from Multan and recovered 1/2 kg high explosive, 1/4 kg low explosive, two non-electric detonators, safety fuse 05m, prima cord 1.82m, nails 1.5kg, ball bearings 750gm, one 30 bore pistol with six bullets and Rs2,350 cash from his possession.

He said the department arrested three suspects, identified as Subhan Allah, Loqman Shah and Jam Dad from Lahore and recovered 550gm explosive, one pistol with five bullets, five non-electric detonators, safety fuse 15 feet and Rs6,930 cash from their possession.

The team also arrested two suspects identified as Sartaj alias Shan and Muhammad Wasal from Toba Tek Singh and recovered 1,815gm explosive, 14 feet safety fuse wire, two detonators and Rs4,100 cash from their possession.

The six suspects belonged to the banned TTP and they wanted to use explosive material for terrorist activity. He said the team arrested three suspects, including Nadeem-ul-Hassan from Chiniot, Mehran Alvi from Khushab and a woman, Aiman Maria, from Lahore, recovering two receipt books, Rs18,950 cash, a copy of CNIC, 37 stickers, 25 pamphlets and 15 banned books “Niday-e-Haq” from their possession.

The suspects belonged to so-called IS and were distributing and collecting funds for financial support of banned outfits, distributing banned books among people and motivating them to join the militant organisations.

The spokesman said the CTD was proactively pursuing its goal of safe and secure Punjab and would make all out efforts to bring terrorists and anti-state elements to the book.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2021