Daily Times

DERA GHAZI KHAN/MULTAN: Five alleged terrorists and their facilitator were apprehended in joint raids by police and Rangers in Dera Ghazi Khan and Lahore on Tuesday, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.

Punjab Rangers and police together with intelligence personnel conducted intelligence-based operations (IBOs) and snap checking in different areas of Punjab province on Tuesday, the statement said.

The areas where these raids were conducted included Attock, Sialkot, Lahore, Mianwali, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur and DG Khan.

Police and paramilitary personnel nabbed five alleged terrorists in an IBO in DG Khan, according to the ISPR, while their facilitator was arrested from Lahore.

The raids also resulted in arrest of 24 other suspects, with illegal weapons seized from them.

Meanwhile, four alleged terrorists belonging to banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were arrested in a massive intelligence-based operation (IBO) conducted by police’s counter-terrorism department (CTD) in Multan, thwarting plans of disrupting the coming general elections.

The suspected terrorists were preparing to attack the top leadership of different political parties in Multan in a bid to disrupt the July 25 polls, police claimed in a statement issued on Tuesday.

The raid was carried out on an intelligence tipoff about presence of four terrorists of the proscribed organisation carrying arms and explosives on Bypass Road near Bakhtawar Amin Hospital.”After receiving the information, the CTD personnel launched a big IBO involving deployment of dozens of intelligence officers. They dug out the hideout of terrorists and reached at the said place [to arrest the suspects],” the statement read.

Weapons including hand grenades and maps and TTP’s literature were seized from the suspects, identified as Abdul Salam, M Liaquat, Wajidullah and M Ahmed.

Published in Daily Times, July 18^th 2018.