Two held in connection with Lahore, Dasu attacks

ISLAMABAD: The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab claims to have arrested two suspects from Lahore in connection with their involvement in blasts in Johar Town, Lahore, and in a bus carrying Chinese engineers to Dasu project site in Khyber Pakthunkhwa (KP).

The suspected brothers were arrested from Defence where they had been living for the last 15 years. They had shifted from Quetta, a police official said, adding that the CTD acted on intelligence reports about their involvement in the terror acts.

As many as 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals, were killed when a bus taking workers to the 4,300-MW Dasu hydropower project was hit by a blast in the Upper Kohistan area in mid-july.

Similarly, a powerful bomb blast in a car had also left seven persons dead while over 15 others injured at Johar Town, Lahore, in the last week of June.

The police claimed that the two suspects arrested from Lahore were involved directly or indirectly in the two terrorism activities. They have been shifted to an undisclosed place for further interrogation, the source said.

Meanwhile, a Chinese national was shot at and wounded in a moving car by gunmen riding a motorbike in the SITE area of Karachi where he was supposed to repair imported machinery, officials said.

Another Chinese man and a local driver remained unhurt in the incident. The CTD Sindh official Raja Umar Khattab said that the banned Balochistan Liberation Front’s spokesperson Gohram through social media has claimed responsibility for the armed attack. The foreigners were without security guards as they were not associated with any government project.

DIG South Javed Akbar Riaz said that the Chinese were going to a factory in Site Area from their residence in Defence, Khiyabad Badr in a car.

Police recorded the statement of the driver of the car. He said that at some place near Maripur Road, some assailants opened fire on the car. He stated that it was difficult to say where exactly the incident of firing happened due to the traffic rush.