PESHAWAR: Law-enforcement agencies claimed on Monday to have arrested one of the ring leaders allegedly involved in the Dec 16 gruesome attack on the Peshawar Army Public School.

The suspect had been living in Pawakki village of Peshawar as an internally displaced person. He was arrested during an intelligence-based operation, according to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

The suspect has been identified as 27-year-old Taj Mohammad alias Rizwan, a resident of Sipah, Koi Chow, Bara, Khyber tribal region. The statement described Taj Mohammad as the main executor in the Dec 16 attack.

He was one of the leaders of a second group which attacked the school. The group was led by Atiqueur Rehman alias Usman who had already been arrested.

During interrogation, the statement said, Taj Mohammad had confessed to have been involved in a number of terrorist attacks in North Waziristan Agency and in the outskirts of Peshawar and that he had been affiliated with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) since 2008.

The massacre in the Peshawar school left 151 people dead, 133 of them young students. The attack was ordered by an Afghanistan-based militant outfit led by Omar Khalifa, alias Omar Mansoor, and Omar Naray.

Omar, a resident of F.R Peshawar, was a key commander of Darra Adamkhel Tehreek-i-Taliban (Tariq Geeder Group). He fled to Tirah in Khyber tribal region and later to Afghanistan’s Naziyan district after a military operation was launched in the arms manufacturing town of Darra Adamkhel and Tirah.

Pakistan has asked Afghanistan to take action against militants hiding in the country’s border areas.

Published in Dawn February 24th , 2015

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