LAHORE, July 1: Police claimed on Sunday to have arrested eight terrorists, including the ringleader of a banned religious outfit, and seized a large cache of explosives.

The accused, who were captured with the help of other law-enforcement agencies, were allegedly planning sabotage activities in Lahore and had rented a house in Ittefaq Town, Iqbal Park.

The ‘ringleader,’ Safeer Ahmad alias Mohammad Azeem of Kharian, was wanted by the Punjab government with a head money of Rs1 million.

Lahore police chief Malik Mohammad Iqbal said at a news conference that the accused had attacked the Missionary School Murree and committed a suicide attack in Taxila Missionary Church in 2002.

The police official said the next target of the suspects was Quetta.

Police had received at tip that Safeer was planning sabotage activities in the city and four members of his gang were bringing explosives from the NWFP to the Lorry Adda.

A squad of the Crimes Investigation Agency arrested Safeer and his three accomplices when they alighted from a bus with explosives.

On their information, police raided the rented house where they had to go and nabbed their four accomplices.

During interrogation, the accused said they had planned blasts in different parts of the city. They said they had got training of making bombs from a neighbouring country.

They said they used to train their fellows and send them to different parts of the country.

Those arrested are: Mufti Sagheer Ahmad alias Abdul Hakeem, ‘explosive expert’ Qadir alias Hayatullah, Yasir Farooq, Mohammad Saddiqie alias Abdullah, Abdul Maeed alias Akhtar Bernalwi, Obaidullah Asghar alias Hafiz and Syed Mohammad Masood alias Sajjad Ali.

AFP adds: The group led by former fighters of the banned Jaish-i-Mohammad was based in Quetta, a police official said.

“During the interrogation they confessed to having carried out a series of suicide bombings and bomb blasts against foreign forces in Afghanistan,” the official said.

“The suspects were preparing remote-controlled devices for the Taliban in Afghanistan,” he said.