JHANG, Nov 1: Police claim to have arrested six members of the banned religious organization Lashkar-i-Jhangvi allegedly involved in terrorist activities.

This was stated by Jhang district police officer Tariq Masood Yasin at a press conference in his office on Friday.

The DPO said special anti-terrorism unit of the Jhang police received a secret information that a Lashkar-i-Jhangvi terrorist, Raza Kandrana, a resident of Bela Kandrana, Mauza Chela, had returned to Jhang after attending the Raiwind Tableeghi congregation.

He said Raza was a companion of Zafar Iqbal alias Bala and Irfan, who were killed in an encounter with Jhang police on Sept 28 last while he (Raza) had managed to escape.

He said a police team managed to arrest Raza and recovered a Russian-made 38 calibre pistol, two magazines, bullets and a mobile phone from his possession.

During the initial investigation, the DPO claimed, Raza told them that his group had its permanent hideout in Shah Murad village from where they carried out their operation.

Raza told police that Amir Hamza and Tahir Abdullah were the hosts at Shah Murad. Arms and ammunition, wireless sets and other articles used in terrorist activities were stored at Shah Murad.

He said a police party raided the village and also arrested both the accused and recovered 14 kilogram of explosive powder in a tin, 42 detonators, fuses, one wireless set, an automatic pistol with two magazines and six bullets of 30 bore, one telephone diary of Jaish-i-Muhammad, fake number plates, 415 bullets of Kalashnikov, and a telephone index having numbers of Sipah-i-Sahaba and Lashkar men besides pamphlets and audio and video tapes from their possession.

Amir Hamza told police that he was an active member of the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan. He claimed that Zafar Iqbal and Irfan would have killed Syeda Abida Husain and Sardarzada Zafar Abbas had they not been killed in encounter, the DPO said.

He said the explosive used in the bomb blast in a Majlis-i-Aza in Bhakkar had been taken from Shah Murad village.

Raza Kandrana told the investigators that he was an SSP students wing activist and Sheikh Farooq had assigned him, Zafar and Irfan the task of killing Abida Husain during her election campaign. They prepared a plan and managed to reach the Dera of Zaifat Bhatti, a close associate of Abida, through Falak Sher Bhatti. Raza said they moved along with Abida Husain for four days and collected a wireless set from Amir Hamza and weapons from SSP activist Yasir, of Shorkot. When they were on their way to Kalri in Chiniot, they had an encounter with police in which Zafar and Irfan were killed.

The DPO said police have also arrested Yasin, Sheikh Farooq and Falak Sher Bhatti.