The Punjab Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) arrested five alleged terrorists during 21 intelligence-based operations in various districts of the province, the CTD spokesperson said on Saturday.

In an official statement issued today, the CTD spokesperson said the alleged terrorists — arrested after interrogating 22 suspects — were identified as Inamul Haque, Maskeenullah, Wahid Khan, Sher Naqib and Shah Wali.

He added that they belonged to various banned religious organisations, including the proscribed militant group Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

The CTD statement said the terrorists had “planned to sabotage the province and wanted to target important installations and other religious places”.

The spokesperson said that weapons and explosives were recovered from the arrested suspects — including an improvised explosive device bomb, half a kilogramme of explosive material, 0.6 metres of safety fuse wire, 1.8m primacord, two hand grenades and two detonators.

Other electric items were seized as well, including an electric circuit, an electric button, 0.9m of electric wire and a battery. Five books and a receipt book of a banned organisation, two mobile phones, and cash worth Rs17,230 were also taken into custody, the statement added.

The CTD statement highlighted that the department had conducted a total of 526 combing operations this week with the help of local police and security agencies.

During these operations, it performed security checks of 21,227 suspicious people, arrested 130 suspects, filed 82 first information reports and made 27 recoveries.

“The Punjab CTD is diligently pursuing its goal of a safe Punjab and no stone will be left unturned in its efforts to bring terrorists and anti-state elements behind bars,” the spokesperson said.

The development comes a week after the Punjab CTD claimed to have arrested five suspected militants during intelligence-based operations across the province.

The CTD claimed to have conducted 24 IBOs in different districts of the province to effectively counter the menace of terrorism.

CTD officials said the arrested suspects were identified as Asrar Ahmad, Farooq Shah, Saifullah, Syed Shahzaib Iqbal and Ahmad Khan, who allegedly belonged to the TTP.