LAHORE – Recent terrorist attacks, one near an office of a secret agency and another in the midst of a crowded funeral, had not only claimed the lives of dozens of people and injured hundreds more, but had also has increased the significance of threats received by these agencies, sources told Pakistan Today. Sources said that two terrorist attacks, which took place on successive days in Faisalabad and Peshawar, had forced people and law enforcement agencies to review all threatening letters which they had received in the last few weeks.
Various law enforcement agencies have been a target for terrorists since the beginning of the war on terror, but in 2008, terrorists began sending threatening letters to the agencies, government departments, businessmen and politicians to stop them from challenging the militants’ views. Intelligence agencies had reportedly infiltrated terrorist networks and started informing the departments concerned, as well as police, about expected targets of terrorist attacks, warning them to increase security.
Sources said that these letters had lost significance with the passage of time as thousand of notifications had been issued and circulated by the Interior Ministry in this regard. One such notification obtained by Pakistan Today showed that the Interior Ministry and intelligence agencies had marked almost every important place in Lahore as “sensitive” and had ordered police to provide extra security for it.
A superintendent of police (SP) told Pakistan Today that the police had received various kinds of threat letters, more than 7,000 in last seven months.
Sources said that law enforcement agencies had reviewed these threats and started making security arrangements accordingly. Sources said that Lahore police had received a threat notification about an expected terrorist attack on Qurban Lines, but adopted security measures only after the terrorist attacks in Faisalabad and Peshawar.
According to the notification, 15 suspected terrorists from Wazirstan had reached the provincial capital via Peshawar using the Awam Express train, said the sources. The terrorists left the train on Cantonment Station and would target the Sheikhupura Range deputy inspector general and PC commander’s offices located inside Qurban Lines, they added. A senior police official, who wished to remain unnamed, told Pakistan Today that such threats were becoming a routine matter for the officials concerned and no longer caused any concern.
He said that the significance of the threats increase only when terrorists manage to actually carry out a threat. He said the top brass usually ordered an increase in security around targets mentioned in the threats for a few weeks and then forgot about them.
