LAHORE, Dec 7: Police claimed on Wednesday to have arrested five suspected terrorists belonging to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) for carrying out bomb blasts in Punjab and Karachi. Speaking at a press conference, Lahore investigation police chief SSP Chaudhry Shafqaat Ahmad said clues from twin bomb blasts in the city on Sept 22 led police to the suspects. Nine people were killed and 37 others injured in the explosions.

The police official said the accused had confessed to having carried out seven other blasts, including some attacks on gas pipelines and other installations in Punjab.

Quoting the accused, the SSP said the BLA had resorted to terrorist activities to register its protest against the larger provinces.

“They believe that the larger provinces and the central government have been usurping the rights of the Baloch and Balochistan,” he said.

He said 80kg of explosives, electric detonators, timers, remote controls, safety fuses and gas and chemicals used in making bombs had been seized from the arrested men.

The SSP said clues from the Lahore blasts led a CIA police anti-terrorism cell team to Sadiqabad, where several people were arrested and they admitted to having links with one Aziz Baloch and Abid Mir of Dera Bugti.

A source in Quetta told a Lahore police team that another man, Naik Mohammad Khilji, was also linked to the Dera Bugti suspects.

While following Mr Khilji, it was learnt that Aziz Baloch was in Karachi, the official said.

A team dispatched to Karachi arrested Aziz Baloch with the help of local police and he confessed to having masterminded the recent bomb blast there, the SSP said.

He said more clues led to arrest of five men –- Jam Maqbool, Syed Najamul Hasan, Asghar Ali, Rana Ilyas and Kashif Chuadhry – in Punjab and Balochistan.

He said the arrested men helped police find explosives hidden at various places.

The police official claimed that the suspects had told interrogators that they were linked to the BLA and Jamhoori Watan Party chief Nawab Akbar Bugti’s grandson Sardar Behram and Mr Khilji paid them for terrorist acts.

The official quoted suspect Jam Maqbool as saying that he had been a part of an arms deal between Nawab Bugti and one Mullah Commander near the Chaman border. “Sardar Behram had ordered us through Mir Abid to carry out blasts in Punjab,” the SSP quoted the suspect as having said.

The police official claimed the accused had also plotted more blasts in Lahore and Karachi.