Daily Times

LAHORE: Law enforcement agencies on Saturday arrested several suspects during a search operation in Punjab, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

Illegal weapons were also recovered in the operation that was conducted by the Punjab Rangers in collaboration with security agencies in Attock, Sialkot, Lahore, Kasur, Faisalabad, and Bahawalpur.

A wave of terrorist attacks has hit the country with polls set to take place on July 25.

On July 10, a bomb targeted a rally by the Awami National Party (ANP) in Peshawar, martyring local party leader Haroon Bilour along with 21 others.

An attack on a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) convoy in Bannu on July 13 followed the tragic Peshawar incident. The Bannu incident claimed lives of at least four people, while 10 others were injured in the explosion.

Later the same day, in what was one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the country’s history, Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) candidate Nawab Siraj Raisani along with 148 others was martyred when a suicide bomber blew himself up during an election rally in Mastung’s Darengarh area. A week after the Mastung blast, on July 16, ANP leader Daud Khan Achakzai was injured after assailants opened fire on the guesthouse of the party’s candidate Zmrak Khan Achakzai in Chaman.

Published in Daily Times, July 22^nd 2018.