CTD arrests another facilitator of Lahore bombing

LAHORE: The Counter Terrorism Department on Saturday apprehended another suspected facilitator of the Lahore Charing Cross suicide attack, officials said, which left 14 people dead earlier this week.

Anwarul Haq, a suspected facilitator who was seen in CCTV footage leading the suicide attacker to Lahore's Charing Cross, had arranged for his stay at a godown in Lunda Bazar.

The blast had killed 14 people, including senior police officials, during a protest at Charing Cross on Mall Road and wounded several others on Monday, February 13.

The godown in Lunda Bazar is owned by Jumma Khan. CTD personnel apprehended Khan on Saturday after they found out the suicide attacker had stayed in his warehouse.

The suspect is being further interrogated about his alleged links to terrorists.

Meanwhile, CTD personnel produced Anwarul Haq before an anti-terrorism court in Lahore under strict security on Saturday. The court sent the suspect in CTD custody on a 30-day remand.

On Saturday, security forces arrested two brothers of Anwarul Haq in an operation in Tehsil Mamond of Bajaur Agency.

On Friday, a video was shown at a press conference addressed by Punjab CM, in which Haq was seen confessing to the grave act of facilitating the suicide bomber in targeting innocent people.

When asked when he was provided the suicide jacket, he said that it reached him 25 days ago.

The facilitator said that he was given the suicide jacket by a member named Arif of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s splinter group Jamaat ul Ahrar.

Haq said that he helped the suicide attacker reach Lahore from Peshawar’s Torkhum Ada.

The commander of the banned outfit involved in the Charing Cross suicide bombing was also identified on Friday.

Intelligence sources informed that the commander of the banned militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Akhtar Khalil Urfi Hasan, along with another accomplice Ameen, were “important characters” behind the Lahore attack.