The Punjab Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) said on Saturday its personnel have arrested 21 alleged terrorists of banned militant outfits — who purportedly intended to carry out terrorism activities and fan sectarian tensions — during intelligence-based operations (IBOs) in several cities of the province.

The CTD said in a statement it had conducted 135 operations in the province, during which it interrogated 135 suspects and arrested 21 alleged militants.

According to the CTD, the arrested men were from Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, Sapiah-i-Sahaba Pakistan, Daesh and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, among other banned militant groups.

“The arrested [suspects] planned to target important installations and religious places in acts of terrorism and fan sectarian tensions by sharing hate material on social media,” the statement said, adding that 18 first information reports (FIR) were registered against them while they had been moved to an unknown place for investigation.

The CTD said the IBOs for the arrests were conducted in Lahore, Narowal, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Muzaffargarh, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Layyah, Bahawalpur, Attock, and Sahiwal.

It added that 5,118 grams of explosives, two hand grenades, as many improvised explosive devices, 30 detonators, 77.3-feet-long safety fuse wires, 6.3 feet of prima chords, a 30 bore pistol, a 9mm pistol along with 13 bullets, 13 books containing literature of banned militant groups, three magazines, 82 pamphlets, 27 flags, a receipt book and cash worth Rs113,740 were seized from the arrested men.

Separately, the statement said, the Punjab CTD conducted 700 combing operations during the past week with the assistance of police and security institutions. During these operations, 29,829 people were checked, 49 suspects were arrested, 32 FIRs were registered and 21 people were recovered, it added.

In July, the Punjab CTD conducted IBOs in various parts of the province resulting in the arrest of 17 militants associated with banned militant organisations.

According to a CTD spokesperson, 132 IBOs were carried out in Punjab, specifically targeting expected terrorism activities by defunct organisations, particularly against Chinese nationals and worship places during Muharram.