LAHORE (ASHRAF JAVED ) – In a major breakthrough, police and intelligence agencies thwarted a possible terror attempt in Lahore by arresting five alleged terrorists in a pre-dawn raid on a hideout in Defence area on Saturday.
A huge stash of weapons, including hand grenades, automatic guns and explosive devices, were seized during the operation,” a source close to the raiding team told The Nation.
Besides the five terrorists, five women and two children were also apprehended from the house in Al-Falah Town in Defense police vicinity.
 Identifications of the arrested suspects were not disclosed to the media until the filing of this report.
“It is pre-mature to establish the links of these terrorists with any outfit,” a police officer said on the condition of anonymity, “They have been shifted to an undisclosed location for further interrogation.”
Insiders said that a joint team of police and intelligence agencies launched the operation in the locality in the wee hours of Saturday. As the security personnel got closer to the hideout, the terrorists opened fire on them.
However, the massive contingent of Elite Force and intelligence operatives successfully cordoned off the house and the ‘terrorists’ were left with no other option but to surrender.
It was also learnt that the alleged terrorists courted their arrests after holding a series of negotiations with the personnel of security forces. The intelligence agencies launched the operations, minutes after they got actionable intelligence from their network.
Police sources claimed that the terrorists had been planning attacks at large-scale to hit high-profile targets in Lahore. The intelligence operatives also recovered a map of important installations from the house, added the sources. Intelligence sources believed that the terrorists were hiding at the house, where they had stashed automatic weapons and explosive material.
“Preliminary investigations suggest that they (terrorists) were all set to strike,” a highly-placed source said, but did not give further details.
Reportedly, the arrested suspects were involved in several terror attacks, which took place in the Punjab province early this year, including the gun attack on the jail staff in Rasool Park area in Lahore, leaving more than 10 prison officials of Khyber-PK province dead.