ISLAMABAD - The law-enforcement agencies foiled a terror plan by arresting nine suspected militants in Islamabad on Friday, officials said.
The arrests were made early Friday when a religious seminary in G-10 was raided by a joint team of the law-enforcing officials. The officials said the suspected terrorists, belonging to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), were planning to target senior military officials and installations. The suspected terrorists, masquerading as daily-wage labourers and push cart vendors, were carrying out reconnaissance of senior military officials and installations. The suspects belonged to Swat and Bajaur regions, according to initial investigations.
A source said the terrorists had been brought to Islamabad about a week back and had been given terror training. They had also been informed of the map of Islamabad and the location of sensitive installations in the capital.
Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan had recently forewarned about a possible terror attack in the federal capital, but his claim had been ridiculed by Pakistan Tehreek-Insaf (PTI), currently protesting in the capital against the government.
The source said TTP was being given active support by seminaries in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, arguing that mosques in the capital had become safe havens for miscreants.
“Seminaries in Islamabad, particularly those being run by clerics of Deobandi school of thought, extend support to TTP,” a police official told The Nation.
The law-enforcing agencies have been bracing for reprisal attacks by militants ever since the military offensive in North Waziristan was launched in June.
However, the much-expected blowback has been amiss and officials speculate that the denial of main sanctuaries, which served as the nerve centres of the terror masterminds, led the militant networks to run into disarray. It was also being learnt that several militant commanders have been on the run and are unable to orchestrate attacks. But they are believed to have renewed their efforts to regroup and pose fresh dangers to the security apparatus.