LAHORE - The major catch of terror sleeper cells and facilitators from Punjab has confessed to getting instructions from terror nests operating from Afghan soil to strike defence and civilian targets in Pakistan, security agencies’ officials close to interrogations of the terror network members told The Nation yesterday.

The growing pressure on the terror networks, as a result of Zarb-e-Azb and other operations in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh, has shifted their focus to the security forces with some attacks on civilian targets, said the security agencies’ officials privy to the interrogation of recently busted sleeper cells and facilitators from the Punjab.

A group of more than five people had been caught from Gujrat’s tehsil of Sarai Alamgir a few days back in an intelligence-led raid. Vehicles bearing fake number plates with fake identities and light and heavy weapons were recovered from their possession.

In the course of their interrogations, they told their interrogators that they were being handled by a splinter of TTP, calling it Jamaat-ul-Ahrar operating from Afghan soil under the command of Omar Khalid Kharasani. They had been tasked to provide transport, weapons and security information of the target to the team, they added.

However, they did not know about the identities of the terrorists who had to strike the target. The Sarai Alamgir catch can be called a “facilitator sleeper cell”. They had yet to be contacted by the hit team.

The busted cell had also told their interrogators that they had been directed to gather information on security forces movements in Sarai Alamgir, Kharian and Jhelum.

Another sleeper unit of the TTP, comprising a single person, had been caught from Sargodha. The terrorist was caught in an intelligence-led operation that had in his possession maps of the surroundings of Sargodha and Mianwali airbases, two suicide jackets and a pistol.

The Sargodha catch told his interrogators that he had been directed to target an air force base and he was waiting for further instructions when he was busted by the security agencies, said the security agencies’ officials.

He told his interrogators that he was getting instructions from a contact based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who was linked to Umar Naray group of the TTP operating from Afghan soil.

In a meeting with his contact man in KP in person before his arrest, some people introduced themselves, being the members of Afghan intelligence service, NDS, and a handler of Indian intelligence agency RAW, he told his interrogators, according to the security agencies’ officials.

Yet another ring of terror network which was busted from Mianwali in an intelligence-based operation, comprising more than four members, told their interrogators that they had been instructed by their handlers operating from a bordering town of South Waziristan to gather information on military as well as civilian security forces stationed in Mianwali, neighbouring Dera Ismail Khan, and Mianwali air force facility, they added.

The group is part of reconnaissance and information providing facilitator sleeper cell of the TTP Umar Naray group.

Three members of terrorist gangs who had been caught from Khushab in an intelligence-led raid came up to be part of Khorasani terror network.

In the course of interrogations, they told the interrogators that one of them was the hit man waiting for instructions to strike a military or civilian target. The remaining two were handling transport, weapons, housing and information providing tasks.

The hit man of the Khushab catch travelled from Afghanistan to Pakistan and met his facilitator sleeper cells in Khushab who were already settled in the district after migrating from South Waziristan some years back.

The hit man told the interrogators that he was trained in the art of subversion by his RAW and NDS handlers somewhere in Khost (Afghanistan). The Indian spy agency was funding the TTP operations while Afghan security service was playing a facilitating role.

In an intelligence-led catch in Attock, 12 persons were taken into custody by the security agencies that were part of sleeper units of TTP and Al-Qaeda South Asia chapter. They told their interrogators that they were assigned military targets.

The members of this network also told their interrogators about the RAW-NDS connection as four of them were part of the hit team trained in Afghanistan’s province of Kandahar. They said the Indian secret service was aiding and abetting subversion on Pakistani soil by backing the runaway TTP groups, said the security agencies’ officials.

The Attock catch told their interrogators that they were planning to use uniforms of security forces and law-enforcing agencies to avert security checks to attack their targets.

All the busted terror network members became part of the TTP groups for monetary considerations and were getting regular stipends from their handlers operating from Afghan soil, they added.

Indian RAW, with the assistance of NDS, is directing attacks on Pakistani soil from Kandahar province of Afghanistan bordering with Balochistan.

Nangarhar, Kunar, Nooristan, Paktia and Paktika provinces of Afghanistan bordering with Pakistan at Fata and other areas are also being used for launching subversion.