CTD busts network involved in major attacks in Peshawar

Police say members of the group rub off fingerprints to avoid identification

PESHAWAR: The Counter-Terrorism Department has busted a gang of terrorists that had planned to carry out major attacks in the provincial capital, including on schools, and arrested its eight members, including the mastermind, an official said on Tuesday.

“The members of the gang have smartly rubbed off their finger prints so they cannot be identified even after they are killed. This was only the motorbike that led us to bust the network,” the senior superintendent of police (SSP) CTD Mian Saeed Ahmad told reporters at the Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines here.

The SSP CTD, flanked by SSP Investigation CTD Nisar Ahmad and SP Peshawar Tariq Habib, said that they have identified the mastermind of the gang that had sent terrorists to carry out a major attack in Peshawar in May.

The attack didn’t happen though as all the three terrorists riding a motorbike were killed when the explosives they were carrying went off prematurely. Two of the terrorists killed were identified to be the suicide bombers, including one suspected foreigner, while the third one was identified as their facilitator. The three terrorists were on way to their target later identified to be a government-run school, officials said without mentioning the place and name of the institution. The group is suspected to be behind the twin blasts in Mathra in May that killed one policeman and injured several persons.

The official added that four persons of the ring have been arrested including the one who provided them support in executing the plan and harboured them in Peshawar, despite knowing that they are going to attack some school. The mastermind is in Afghanistan.

“On the pointation of the accused, we have recovered 50 kilograms of explosives and already prepared improvised explosive devices to be used for sabotage acts,” said Mian Saeed. The recovered explosives also included detonators, safety fuses and prima cord. The officials suspected that there would be more explosives hidden in other areas for which work is still on.

According to the cops, held men are members of Jamatul Ahrar. Terrorist attacks in part of Peshawar have increased over the last few weeks, with most of them happening in the north of the provincial capital, especially in the areas of Mathra, Daudzai and Khazana Police Stations. Besides, the incidents of target killing and calls for extortion have also recorded an increase in the provincial metropolis for the last many months.