Pakistani Taliban train men for Lahore attacks, Raiwind assisted: police

Naeem Akram, Deputy Inspector General Police said the attackers came from Bannu, North Waziristan, and stayed at Raiwind, near Lahore before they launched the attacks. Raiwind is the center of a religious group called "Tablighi Jamaat" and the police officer said the attackers stayed at the center.
 

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | Int'l Desk
Source & Credit: Xinhua News | China
By Editor, Mu Xuequan | May 29, 2010

ISLAMABAD (Xinhua) -- Militants, who attacked worship places of a minority sect and killed over 90 people in Pakistan's Lahore city, received training in North Waziristan tribal area, a senior police officer said Saturday.

Naeem Akram, Deputy Inspector General Police, told a news conference that Pakistani Taliban planned attacks on worship places of Ahmadis sect and the two arrested suspects have provided important information to the investigators.


"We will succeed to break the network as we have expanded investigation on the basis of extracted information," he said, adding that all attackers and helpers have been identified.

Akram said the attackers came from Bannu, a main city near North Waziristan, and stayed at Raiwind, a small town near Lahore before they launched the attacks.

Raiwind is the center of a non-political religious group called "Tablighi Jamaat" and the police officer said the attackers stayed at the center.

He said that the attackers visited the targeted places twice, once on May 21 and then on May 27, along with the local facilitator. The attackers stayed at a mosque in Lahore city on the night of May 27.

Abdullah and Maaz, who carried out attacks at Model Town, have been arrested. Maaz was injured and under treatment, the police officer said. Abdullah is working for Taliban in Miranshsh, the center of North Waziristan, he said, adding 27 people were killed at Model Town.

The police officer said that 18 hand grenades, Klashnikove guns, ammunition and detonators were recovered.

Pakistan's city of Lahore have been identified, local TV channels reported on Saturday.

Quoting intelligence sources, the private TV SAMAA reported that terrorists of the banned religious outfit Harkatul Mujahiden were behind the deadly attacks on Ahmadis.

One of them came from Swat area of northwest Pakistan, three from Rahimyar khan, a famous city in the south of Punjab province, the channel reported.

Two separate groups identified themselves as Tehrek-e-Taliban Pakistan Punjab wing and Al-Qaeda Al-Jihad Punjab wing claimed responsibility for the attack on Friday.

Two groups of unknown militants attacked two worship places of a religious group Ahmadi almost simultaneously in Lahore on Friday, leaving 95 people dead and more than 100 injured.

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