CHAKWAL, Jan 16: Police claimed on Wednesday that it had foiled an attempt to kill former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, the nazim of Chakwal district and two government officials.

Chakwal DPO Sardar Maqsood Khan told a press conference that police had arrested a suicide bomber and seized eight kilograms of explosive material during a crackdown that ended this week.

The DPO said that police had caught a man wanted on terror charges after a raid on a house in Talagang.

He said Abdul Ghafoor had “confessed” during interrogation that he knew of a plan to kill Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and Sardar Ghulam Abbas, the Chakwal Nazim. The police official said Abdul Ghafoor and his associates had made plans to attack Muharram processions.

Sardar Maqsood said he and the DCO, too, were on the hit list. Abdul Ghafoor, 23, is a member of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. The DPO said police had obtained a remand of the accused from the anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi.—APP