GUJRAT, Oct 10: Security agencies with the help of police on Monday conducted a raid in connection with the Rawalpindi Ayub Park blast at Bhullar village near Malikwal (Mandi Bahauddin district) and arrested an army absconder, it is learnt.

The arrested, Ali Ahmad, is an army absconder and a close relative of Harya UC nazim Abdur Rauf Gondal and Dr Zafar Gondal who are already in official custody following the Oct 6 raid.

Official sources and family of arrested Gondals told Dawn that Ali Ahmed had quit the army after serving against some sensitive posts.

The family believed that the Oct 6 raid at the residence of nazim Abdur Rauf Gondal (advocate) was probably in search of Ali. “As the inmates took the raiding teams as robbers they opened fire which led to the death of rangers’ officer Abdullah Gondal,” a family member said.

Following the shootout, the raiding team had arrested Rauf and Zafar.

The sources said that the raiding team also conducted a raid at Pind Mako, the native village of former provincial minister Haji Afzal Chan. But the purpose of this raid could not be confirmed.

The security agencies have shifted Ali to an undisclosed location.

The wife of Rauf Gondal has meanwhile urged the government to explain the cause of the raid at their house for the arrest of her husband. She said that the raiding team members were in plainclothes and opened fire at them without identifying them. She demanded the release of her husband and her brother-in-law at the earliest.