Explosions: 8 Afghans in custody

Published January 12, 2009

LAHORE, Jan 11: Eight people, believed to be Afghan trained boys (ATBs) and Afghan jail returnees (AJRs), are in the custody of the Crimes Investigation Agency (CIA) for the last two days in connection with Friday’s low-intensity explosions at Alfalah and Tamaseel theatres.

A police official told Dawn that the suspects were detained after intelligence agencies provided the city police a list of their names after intercepting their telephone calls and identifying them.

He claimed that investigation was in progress and the involvement of all or some of those detained could not be ruled out. He, however, did not identify the suspects nor gave further details about the investigation.

In a related development, a police investigator told Dawn that vendor Shafiq, who was detained in connection with Friday’s explosions, was found innocent and would be released in a day or two.