LAHORE: Five al-Qaeda terrorists have been killed and 450 suspects arrested in Punjab province as the Pakistani military launched a fresh campaign against militants following the Easter Sunday massacre that killed 74 people.
The attack by Pakistani Taliban faction – Jamaatul Ahrar – killed 74 people, most of them women and children, on Sunday at a crowded public park in Lahore. The group claimed the attack saying it was a “message” to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that the “war has reached his doorstep”. It also said that their target were Christians.
Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah today said security agencies and Punjab police have extended search operations from main districts to small towns and detained 450 suspects.
“In the four-day operation (since Sunday), law enforcement agencies had taken more than 9,000 people into custody but detained 450 of them for their alleged links with banned organisations,” Sanaullah told reporters here. “We are also interrogating them for their role as facilitators.”
He acknowledged that some people may have to face problems as the operation progresses, but quickly added that there was no other way to find the terrorists and their facilitators.
“Such people are living among us. We have to identify them and arrest them. War against terrorism is our struggle for survival and there is no other option but to win it,” he said.(Agencies)
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