Terrorists planning another APS-like attack arrested in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: Another Army Public School-like attack was foiled in the provincial capital on the first anniversary of the gruesome incident as the police apprehended five suspected terrorists and recovered two 20-kilogram bombs and a rocket launcher, police officials said on Tuesday.

Security has been put on high alert all over Khyber Pakhtunkwha, especially Peshawar, as the government geared up to observe the first anniversary of the attack on the Army Public School on December 16. Soldiers of the Pakistan Army and policemen are patrolling the streets in Peshawar to avoid another attack.

“We arrested five terrorists including a prayer leader who disclosed that they were planning to attack a school on the Warsak Road,” Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Mubarik Zeb told The News. He said the cops recovered explosives and rocket launchers from a house on the information of the terrorists.

“The police and bomb disposal unit (BDU) officials visited the site of an explosion in a mosque in Panam Dheri that the locals had termed a cylinder blast. We arrested
the prayer leader after finding evidence of explosives from the blast site,” Mubarik Zeb added.

The official said that the peshiman disclosed the names of four other terrorists who were making bombs in the mosque to carry out attack on a school on Warsak Road on the first anniversary of the Army Public School tragedy.

The Army Public School, too, is located on the Warsak Road.As many as 153 persons, as per the parents, were killed and scores of others were wounded in the attack carried out by six terrorists on December 16 last year. The incident plunged the entire nation into grief while the parents and families of the martyrs are yet to come out of the shock.

CCPO Mubarik Zeb said the terrorists were planning another such attack that was foiled in time. “On the information obtained from the terrorists, we raided a house and recovered two improvised explosive devices while the third one was being made. Both the IEDs were carrying 20 kilograms of explosives each,” hr informed. One RPG-7 rocket launcher with shells was also recovered from the house, he said, adding, the house-owner has been arrested.

“The terrorists disclosed during the interrogation that they were planning to plant the explosives in a school to target the kids. Their other accomplices were probably going to provide them further information about the specific target and time,” revealed Mubarik Zeb.

The CCPO said security of the schools all over Peshawar had been upgraded on the eve of the anniversary of the APS attack. He stated that owners of a number of schools have been booked for failing to take adequate security measures despite repeated instructions.“The overall security has been upgraded. Search operations were on for the last two weeks to round up suspects,” he added.