'Anti-Pak intel agency involved in blast outside Saeed's home'

June 28, 2021 22:43

Pakistan's Punjab government on Monday claimed to have unearthed the network of all 10 suspects, including women, involved in the powerful bomb blast outside the house of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind and chief of the banned Jamat-ud-Dawa Hafiz Saeed in Lahore.

Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Punjab Inspector General of Police Inam Ghani at a joint press conference in Lahore also said that an "anti-Pakistan intelligence agency" was involved in the Johar Town bombing, but were short of naming it despite reporters' repeated insistence.

"We have told the federal government about its (anti-Pakistan agency's) role in the incident," Buzdar said.

"The Counter Terrorism Department of the Punjab Police has unearthed the network of all Pakistani and international suspects involved in the blast within 16 hours of the incident. We have arrested (10) local suspects, including women, he said.

IGP Ghani said the hostile agencies had provided financial support to the locals to carry out the terror attack.

"The mastermind of the blast has been identified. A Joint Investigation Team has been formed to further probe this incident," he said.

Ghani said the terrorist who planted explosives in the car and parked it near Saeed's house belongs to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, but he speaks fluent Punjabi that helped him carry out the operation in Lahore.

"Hostile agencies can have the services of local (Pakistani) agents for terror acts easily against money. Money is given to local (Pakistani) agents in the Middle East," the IGP said, and claimed that the "basic target of the Lahore blast was the FATF conference."

The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, the global anti-money laundering and terror financing watchdog, at the end of its five-day virtual plenary meeting on Friday last retained Pakistan in its "grey list" for failing to adequately investigate and prosecute leaders of UN-designated terror groups.

Both the Chief Minister and IGP did not disclose the names of the arrested terrorists in the press conference. -- PTI

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