LAHORE - Special anti-terror operations have been launched in Punjab to purge the province of on-the-run TTP and al-Qaeda militants and their sleeper cells as part of National Action Plan, security services’ sources told The Nation yesterday.
The operations are of two types: intelligence-led and intelligence-based. The focus will be on the districts marked as ‘Red’ or ‘Highly Sensitive’ in terms of presence of militant sleeper cells and hideouts of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and al-Qaeda elements, they added.
The decision was taken after the key security services in the meetings of the provincial and divisional apex committees pointed out the slow pace of operations against the militant hideouts and sleeper cells which posed a continuous threat to the province.
The districts which have been marked as Red include Dera Ghazi Khan, Layyah, Multan, Rahim Yar Khan, Muzaffargarh and Bahawalpur in southern part and Jhang, Sargodha, Attock, Rawalpindi, Khushab, Bhakkar and Mianwali in northern part of the province.
Also on the list are northeastern Nankana Sahib and northwestern Sheikhupura districts. In Central Punjab, Lahore and Faisalabad district falls in the Highly-Sensitive (Red) category while Sialkot, Kasur, Okara and Gujranwala are in the ‘Low Red’ category.
Aggressive security sweeps are underway in the Red districts and some targets have been identified for action. Three special anti-terror operations had already been carried out in the districts of Nankana Sahib, Sheikhupura and Khushab.
The special operations in Nankana Sahib and Sheikhupura, in which six TTP and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi-linked targets had been taken out, were intelligence-based operations and carried out by military and civilian security services.
The operation in Khushab, in which four men having connections with the TTP were picked up, was carried out by a key intelligence agency, said the security services’ sources.
Two of the accomplices of militants in Nankana Sahib and three in Sheikhupura managed to escape from the scene during the gun battles, while one evaded the raid in Khushab.
According to sources, TTP-linked elements picked up from Khushab with suicide jackets in their possession constituted a main sleeper cell of the banned outfit. During interrogations they provided lead for the Nankana Sahib operation in which five TTP and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi members were killed in a fierce gun-battle. They belonged to Muzaffargarh, Bhakkar, Multan and Rahim Yar Khan districts.
The ‘Khushab Catch’ also revealed about planed suicide attacks in the province in which the eliminated Nankana network had to play an important part. A manhunt is on for the two Nankana Sahib and one Khushab on-the-run militants who, according to the security services’ sources, could launch or facilitate some terror attacks in the province.
In the light of information sought from other sources and the revelations of the arrested militants, the security services strongly believe the splinters of TTP and al-Qaeda could attack any key educational institution on the pattern of Army Public School (APS) attack, or they could target some church on the eve of Christmas.
The agencies part of the divisional and district intelligence committees have launched surveys in various parts of the province focusing the metropolitan cities in a bid to identify soft targets that could be attacked by the terrorists, the sources said.