India directly involved in Lahore blast: Fawad Ch
India directly involved in Lahore blast: Fawad Ch
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry while exposing the terrorist activities of Modi government to the world said that India was directly involved in the Lahore blast.
Addressing a news conference, along with National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf and Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab Inam Ghani, he said, “Unfortunately, persistent terrorist incidents were being carried out in Pakistan, which time and again proved that Indian establishment and its government were fully supporting and sponsoring the terrorist network in Pakistan.”
He said that after the arrest of Indian Terrorist Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav by the Pakistan forces, Pakistan got strong evidences of India’s involvement in terrorist activities inside Pakistan.
Fawad Chaudhry said, “I appreciate Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Military Intelligence (MI) and Punjab police for arresting the terrorists involved in the Johar Town Lahore blast within a short span time.”
He said that the gang active inside Pakistan was arrested and busted with close coordination of Punjab police, Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence.
Minister also said that the arrest of terrorists involved in the Lahore bomb blast was successfully made due to close coordination among the police, CID, ISI and MI. “On the successful operation against terrorist, I congratulate all the agencies and police,” he added.
Fawad said that Pakistan had fought a war against terrorists and rendered unmatched sacrifices which were also acknowledged by the international community.
He also felicitated Inspector General and his team for arresting the terrorists and added that the combine efforts had made it abundantly clear that India directly involved in the terrorist incidents.
Giving details of the investigation, Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Inam Ghani said Counter Terrorism Department (CTD-Punjab) and others has efficiently tracked and traced the blast within 16 hours and identified all suspects involved in the blast.
Ghani said the people living abroad with Indian connections planned and financed the blast.
Giving details of the main suspect, he said a suspect named Peter Pal from Karachi aged 55-56 mostly lived outside Pakistan was the linchpin who connected the entire network and he had managed the tempered vehicle stolen in 2010.
He added that the police tried to go beyond identifying the car used in the blast and within a few hours, the police had reached the people who owned the car and gained information about how they had gotten it.
“Within hours we had unearthed this whole network and went to arrest [the suspects]. The lynchpin who arranged all this has been arrested, those who arranged the car and those who repaired the car and those who filled the car with explosive material as well — we have all of them,” he told.
Ghani said the police had also identified the masterminds behind the explosion who belonged to hostile intelligence agencies. “We have shared [the information] with the federal government and intelligence agencies.
The IGP said the police would investigate what previous cases the suspects were involved in and the hostile intelligence agencies they were linked to, expressing the hope that the police would prosecute the case in a “good way” so those involved would be convicted.
Ghani said the car used in the blast was snatched in 2010. However, the car had been recovered within months and it was later being used on “superdari” (custody) for which the owner had the proper documents, he added.
The car had “original number plates”, the official said.
About the suspect Eid Gul, the IGP said he was originally from Afghanistan but he was born and raised in Punjab and spoke fluent Punjabi.
“The target was the same two police pickets and our people were injured. No one gave any report that any car was there and they had alerted police. When the car entered Punjab, it had original number plates and there was nothing in the car. If we start checking the trunk of every car, the [number of cars travelling on the] motorway will be halved.”
“We were successful in not only unearthing [the suspects] but also connections with hostile intelligence agencies are clear.
To a query, he said 69 threat alerts were received during the past month and all were thwarted by police and intelligence agencies. “The Punjab Police minimised the attack by taking the pressure on it,” he added.
On June 23, a powerful blast in Lahore’s Johar Town had killed three people and injured 22 others, including two police officials.It caused severe damage 12 vehicles, seven nearby houses.
“The terrorists involved in the blast have been arrested and the international and local characters have been identified,” he said.
He further said that the accused Eid Gul prepared the car for blast in Islamabad.
National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf said that India sponsored the terrorist for blast in Lahore adding that we have evidence of all the contacts. The main accused involved in the blast belongs to India s intelligence agency RAW, he added.
"I want to make sure that our message is heard very clearly this particular incident on the 23rd of June in Lahore. We have concrete evidence and intelligence, including financial and telephone records that point to direct Indian sponsorship of these terrorists," he added.
"Through forensic analysis, electronic equipment which has been recovered from these terrorists, we have identified the main mastermind and the handlers of this terrorist attack and we have absolutely no doubt or reservation in informing you that the main mastermind belongs to RAW, the Indian intelligence agency, is an Indian national, and is based in India," he said.
Yusuf said that he would like to remind everyone that Indian use of territory and people of third countries, which actually embarrasses other countries, is not new.
We have been constantly reminding the world of Indian actions, including a detailed dossier that was put out last November with details, minute details of finances, of action, of support coming from India," said the national security adviser.
He drew attention to the recent report by EU DisinfoLab, an international reputed organisation, which provides a detailed account of how "hundreds and thousands of fake outlets were being used to malign Pakistan, to spread misinformation about Pakistan, and to hide what is actually a clear terrorist sponsorship by a state against another state in our region".
Yusuf said that very unusually there is also evidence of thousands of attempts of cyber attacks against our critical investigative infrastructure right after this attack on the 23rd in Lahore.
These attacks and the number and the sophistication in some cases leaves no doubt of state sponsorship and state linkage in this case, he said.
He said that Pakistan s cybersecurity was strong enough to thwart the attempts but asked why the attacks took place, before going on to provide an answer.
Mooed said that they were being conducted because our enemies wanted to buy time to deflect attention and to avoid the apprehending and capture of these terrorists that we managed to do.
