Hundreds arrested in terror crackdown across Punjab after Lahore blast
Raids are being conducted across Punjab after suicide attack at Gulshan Iqbal Park in Lahore.
LAHORE (Web Desk / AFP) – Hundreds of suspects have been arrested during intelligence-based operations in different areas of Punjab following Sunday’s suicide attack which claimed lives of more than 70 people including many children in a Lahore park crowded with families.
According to the army spokesperson, heavy weapons and ammunition have been recovered during the operations.
More than 80 suspects were rounded up in Faisalabad, around 200 held in Gujranwala, 250 including 60 foreigners in Sialkot, 10 suspects in Bhakkar, 34 from Rahim Yar Khan, 18 in Kasur and a member of a banned outfit was detained in Ahmadpur Sharqia area of Bahawalpur while several others were arrested in Jhelum, Khanewal, Nankana, Sheikhpura and Muzaffargarh.
Separately, six members of a banned organisation listed in the fourth-schedule were arrested in Hassan Abdal town of Attock district.
According to sources, terror safe havens also exit in Southern Punjab where CTD, police and intelligence agencies have launched an operation.
JAMAAT-UL-AHRAR CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY
A spokesman for the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) told AFP the group had carried out the attack at Gulshan Iqbal Park in Lahore, and vowed more assaults on schools and colleges.
They later posted a picture of the man they said carried out the bombing, Salahuddin Khorasani.
The attack was the worst so far this year in a country grimly accustomed to atrocities.
PM’S MESSAGE TO NATION
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed in a televised address Monday evening to avenge the attack.
"Terrorists cannot dent our resolve. Our struggle will continue until the complete elimination of the menace of terrorism," Sharif said.
A spokesman from his office said the prime minister would no longer be attending the Nuclear Security Summit to be held in Washington this week.
Witnesses told of children screaming as people carried the injured in their arms in the aftermath of the attack, while frantic relatives searched for loved ones.
Rescue spokeswoman Deeba Shahbaz said the death toll had risen to 72, with 29 children among the dead. Bits of human flesh and torn cloth could be seen around the bloodstained swings and merry-go-round.
Some 8,000 people were present in the park when the bomb was detonated in the early evening, park officials said.
