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Friday March 29, 2024

Suicide bomber’s facilitator remanded to CTD for 30 days

By Numan Wahab
February 19, 2017

LAHORE

An Anti-Terrorism Court on Saturday handed over the facilitator of the Lahore suicide bomber to the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on 30 days physical remand.

At least 15 people including SSP Operations Zahid Gondal of Punjab Police and DIG Traffic Lahore Capt (retd) Ahmad Mobin were killed and more than 100 injured in the deadly suicide blast. Officials of CTD produced the alleged facilitator, Anwarul Haq, before the ATC amid tight security as heavy contingents of law enforcement agencies had cordoned off the premises.

The CTD sought physical remand of the accused which was granted by the court for 30 days. Under the Anti Terrorism Act an accused can be handed over to the law enforcement agency for 90 days. 

The court has directed CTD to produce the accused again by March 21 along with an investigation report. The security agencies had arrested Anwar Ul Haq after the blast and aired his confessional statement. 

The suspect stated that he hailed from a remote village in Bajaur Agency. Moreover, he was associated with Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and got training from Ahrar trainers. He said that he visited Afghanistan around 15 to 20 times. He revealed that the suicide bomber belonged to a network which operated from Afghanistan.  He said the suicide jacket was handed over to him 25 days before the attack by a member, Arif, of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s splinter group Jamaat ul Ahrar.

He confessed that he had helped the suicide attacker reach Lahore from Peshawar’s Torkhum Ada. On Saturday, an FIR was registered at the CTD police station on the petition of SHO Civil Lines police station. According to the FIR, four people were allegedly involved in the suicide attack at Charing Cross, out of the four, one blew himself up while the other three fled. The report said that six to eight kilogrammes of explosives were used in the suicide blast while ball bearings caused most deaths.

As per intelligence agencies, commander of the banned militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Akhtar Khalil Urfi Hasan, along with accomplice Ameen, are key characters behind the Lahore attack.  Jamaat-ur-Ahrar had claimed responsibility for the attack.  It is the outfit that had claimed responsibility for an Easter Day bombing in Lahore last year which killed more than 70 people in Gulshan-i-Iqbal Park.