LAHORE – Lahore Police claimed to have arrested six terrorists including the mastermind of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), involved in the attack on Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore and seized sophisticated weapons, ammunition and a suicide jacket from their custody.
Capital City Police Officer (CCPO), Lahore Aslam Tareen flanked by Deputy Inspector General Investigation Ali Amir Malik, Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Investigation Abdul Razzaq Cheema and Superintendent Police (SP) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Umar Virk disclosed this while addressing a press conference at Police Lines Qila Gujjer Singh on Tuesday.
The CCPO said during the initial investigation, the arrested terrorists had revealed that they had a plan to take the cricket team hostage to get TTP’s arrested commanders released. The CCPO said six terrorists had been arrested in various districts on a tip-off provided by two already arrested terrorists named Zubair alias Naik Muhammad and Abdul Wahab.
The six arrested terrorists are the mastermind Aman Ullah, son of Haji Moosa Mohyi, a resident of Tehi Baroh, district Dera Ismail Khan and his five accomplices named Ubaid Ullah alias Zubair, son of Shakir Ullah Pathan, a resident of Karachi, Mohsin Rasheed, son of Abdul Rehman Taheem, a resident of Muzaffargarh, Muhammad Javed Anwar alias Umar, son of Muhammad Anwar Mochi, a resident of Toba Tehk Singh, Qari Muhammad Ishfaq, son of Muhammad Mushtaq Jutt, a resident of Toba Tek Singh and Ubaid-ur-Rehman Qamar alias Khalid Zubair, son of Abdul Hakeem Gujjar, a resident of Bahawalpur.
The commanders of the attack on the Sri Lankan team, Aqeel alias Dr Usman, Khaleeq-ur-Rehman alias Andha and Usman alias Gul Khan had also been arrested during the attack on General Headquarters, Rawalpindi. However, six accomplices of the arrested terrorists namely Naeem Uddin alias Rana Arshad, Ejaz, Adnan alias Sajjad, Shani, Mehmood-ul-Hassan and their instructor Shaukat Ali Khan alias Shoki, resident of Kamalia, were still missing.
The CCPO said that the terrorists had different gangs and chains of command and the police, with the help of intelligence agencies, were trying to dismantle networks step by step to eradicate their roots from the country. The police siezed a suicide jacket, four kalashnikovs, 8 hand grenades and 1000 kalashnikov bullets from the six arrested men, the CCPO said.
Aslam Tareen told the media that the arrested terrorists had chalked out a terrorist plan to attack the Sri Lankan Cricket team by taking rooms on rent at Toheed Hostel on Wahdat Road, Madina Colony near Cavalry Ground and at Gujjar Colony in Shahdra. According to the information gleaned during investigation, three accused terrorists namely Naeem alias Rana Arshad, Muhammad Usman alias Gul Khan and Ubaid-ur-Rehman alias Khalid Zubair lodged at a hostel in Gujjar Colony, Shahdra, Lahore a day before the incident and left the area on the day of incident without intimating anyone.
The police team worked undercover in Gujjar Colony on a tip-off that they were trying to get a house on rent in the locality. The police team conducted a raid after getting information about the terrorists’ meeting at the Tomb of Jahangir in Shahdra and managed to arrest aforementioned six terrorists, seizing a huge cache of weapons and ammunition.
The arrested terrorists told the police during initial interrogation that they belong to the banned outfit TTP and they had planned to kidnap Sri Lankan Cricket team in December 2008 in Waziristan under the command of Abdul Haleem Mehsood and Mushtaq alias Aslam Yasin to get their commanders released.
To execute the plan, commander Aman Ullah and Mehmood-ul-Hassan delivered suicide jackets and ammunition in Faisalabad from Meran Shah. Aman Ullah and Mehmood ul Hassan stayed at the seminary of Ibrahim Khalil in Faisalabad and had a meeting with Khaleeq ur Rehman there. Khaleeq Andha and Usman alias Gul Khan later traveled from Karachi to Lahore along with Sri Lankan Cricket Team by air and stayed at the Pearl Continental Hotel, Lahore.
On the day of the incident, all terrorists reached the crime scene on two cars and a rickshaw after offering Fajr prayer at Jamia Ashrafia, Lahore and attacked the team. As a result, seven people were killed and several others were injured. The arrested terrorists told the police that Aslam alias Mushtaq alias Usama and Shaukat Ali of Tehsil Kamalia had imparted them physical training while Qari Ajmal had brain- washed them for the attack.
After the attack, the terrorists managed to flee the scene and continued terrorist activities in different parts of the country. One of the recently arrested terrorists named Javed Anwar was involved in the attack on Christian community at Chak 362/J-B in Gojra on July 30, 2009. The CCPO said that Lahore Police had made a breakthrough in the Data Sahib attack and the details would be brought before the media very soon.
He refused to comment on Raymond Davis issue. Senior police officers said Lahore Police had cleared the stain put on Pakistan on March 03, 2009 by arresting the terrorists involved in the attack on Sri Lankan cricket team.
