PESHAWAR: The police have arrested a key facilitator of the militants who attacked the Agricultural Training Institute in the provincial capital on December 1 last year, an official said on Saturday.
Nine people, including eight students, were martyred while 30 were wounded in the attack reportedly carried out by three attackers. All the attackers were killed inside the building when police and army contingents arrived at the spot and engaged the militants.
"Mohammad Yasir hailing from Bajaur Agency had provided transport and other facilities to the attackers on the day of the incident," an official of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) said.
He added that the accused was held in Larama village in the suburbs of Peshawar during an action and shifted to a secret place for interrogation.
Some reports suggested that another facilitator of the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) attackers was held in January.
The building that was attacked houses offices and two hostels of the ATI and Pakistan Housing Authority.
Three burqa-clad attackers arrived outside the ATI building in a rickshaw early morning on December 1. The rickshaw had a fake registration plate and the chassis number too had been tampered with.
It was learnt that the attackers first took out the watchman identified as Abdul Hameed and then barged into one of the two hostels from where most of the students had left for home on the weekend.
The attackers shot students in the hostels one by one. The students ran in in panic to save their lives. Some of the students were still asleep as it was a public holiday.
The police and army commandoes reached the spot within a few minutes to take on the attackers at the hostel located inside the Directorate General of Agriculture building. The encounter continued for quite some time before the three attackers were killed.
The CTD had lodged a case and had started investigation to find out as to who had provided the auto-rickshaw, shelter and ammunition to the attackers during their stay in Peshawar.
