Key suspect in Lahore car bombing arrested

Govt is likely to issue statement about a breakthrough achieved by Punjab CTD with the help of intelligence agencies

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE   -  Federal Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Thursday said that Punjab Police were close to arresting the culprits involved in Lahore car bomb blast that four people dead and injured 20 others. 

Punjab Police have achieved “great success” during the investigation in Johar Town blast and they were close to arresting the suspects, he said in a video message. “The police will soon arrest them and give good news to the people,” the minister claimed. The interior minister said that Pakistan’s enemies could not digest the economic and politically stability the country has achieved under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan and they had adopted “route of terrorism.” 

Sheikh Rashid said that Pakistan has completed 80 percent work of fencing along Afghan border and 46 percent fencing along Iran border. “The fencing along Afghan border will be completed within one and a half month and it will be completed during this year along Iran border.” 

He hoped that the country would move forward under the leadership of PM Khan. He said that nation along with Armed Forces of Pakistan would continue their struggle to bring peace stability, and progress in the country. A day earlier, a powerful blast near the residence of chief of proscribed Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) Hafiz Mohammad Saeed killed four people and injured 24 others. 

Meanwhile, Pakistani security forces on Thursday claimed to have arrested one of the alleged perpetrators of a car bombing the day before that killed three people and wounded 25 near the residence of a convicted militant leader linked to the Mumbai terrorist attacks, officials said.

Reportedly, the man behind Wednesday’s attack in the eastern city of Lahore was arrested at the airport as he was trying to leave the country, said Suhail Ahmad, a security official familiar with the investigation. 

He identified the man as Pakistani national David Peter. Ahmad refused to share further details, saying the government would issue a statement about a breakthrough in the case achieved by the Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department with the help of the country’s intelligence agencies. Hours earlier, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said in a video message on Twitter that the Punjab police were close to arresting those responsible for the Lahore car bombing.

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