3,000kg of explosives, arms, suicide vests seized in Lahore
LAHORE, March 16: Police recovered 3,000kg of high-grade explosives (ammonium nitrate), sophisticated weapons and two suicide vests from another shop in Iqbal Town for the second day running on Tuesday and arrested 15 suspects.
On Monday, police seized 1,500kg of explosives, hand-grenades, suicide vests and a number of bullets from the same area.
Sources told Dawn that police raided the shop on an information provided by the counter terrorism cell of Inter Services Intelligence.
They claimed the law-enforcement agencies had arrested the second tier of terrorists involved in a fresh series of suicide blasts and explosions in Lahore and investigators were closing in on the network of first tier.
Iqbal Town SP Ali Nasir Rizvi told Dawn that the ongoing search operation, launched by joint police teams with the help of local people, had resulted in another seizure of explosives.
He said 3,000kg of ammonium nitrate in 200 sacks, three semi-machine guns (SMGs) and one light machine gun (LMG) had been recovered in the raid on Tuesday while thousands of bullets, 25 magazines of SMGs and 200 large bullets of LMGs were seized on Monday.
Mr Rizvi said a mixture of ammonium nitrate, potassium and sulphur had been used in all the suicide blasts carried out through mini-trucks and pick-ups.
He said no less than 600kg of explosives was used in a vehicle blown up in Model Town on March 8 and 3,000kg of explosives seized on Tuesday could be used in 10 similar blasts.
The SP said the owner of the shop identified as Haji Mushtaq Javed and two other suspects had been arrested. He said prime suspect Muhammad Umer, who had acquired the first shop (raided on Monday) from Sheikh Kamil, also took the second shop on rent.
He said Umer was a resident of Dubanpura and police were searching for him for two days.
Sources told Dawn that Muhammad Umer, who was storing explosives and weapons at the rented shops, was assisted by one Maulvi Anwer, a member of a terror network.They said a hunt was on for Imran Mota, another high-profile terrorist.
The sources said a majority of suspects either arrested or to be arrested after RA Bazaar and Iqbal Town explosions hailed from Punjab and their links had been established with some residents of south Punjab.
Police continued a crackdown in small hours of Tuesday against suspected people, illegal foreigners and people living in the city without identity documents.
A few cases were registered against illegal residents.
During the search operation, officials of the Crimes Record Office started maintaining records of people, especially Afghans.
The Iqbal Town division police picked up 3,700 people, including Afghans, for interrogation and released those who satisfied them about their identity.
DAWN.COM | Front Page | 3,000kg of explosives, arms, suicide vests seized in Lahore
this is just too much for a small group of people. This smells of a big group with extensive networks and logistics. The other theory is the Police could be planting evidence to score some points with the public to gain confidence.
