LAHORE: Pakistan's law enforcement agencies on Thursday claimed to have thwarted a terror attack with the arrest of five Taliban terrorists here. According to the Punjab police's Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), the Afghan terrorists had planned to bomb the Civil Secretariat that houses the offices of the province's civil bureaucracy.
"The terrorists were heading for Punjab Civil Secretariat, Lahore to bomb it. They were arrested just before their departure from Shahdara area of Lahore," the CTD said in a statement.
A joint team of CTD and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) conducted an intelligence-based operation in Shahdara and arrested five terrorists of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) just before they could leave their place to bomb Civil Secretariat on Wednesday, it said.
"These terrorists disclosed that they had come from Afghanistan two months ago," the CTD said, adding that Qari Mujeebur Rehman, an undercover officer of Afghan Intelligence Agency NDS, had met them in Jalalabad and given them this task.
An improvised explosive device, hand grenade, pistols and ammunition have been recovered from them. Pakistani and Afghan currency were also recovered. The CTD said that cell phones containing videos of sensitive installations including Civil Secretariat were also seized.