LAHORE - At least 20 people were arrested and a huge cache of weapons was seized in a series of raids on suspected militants across the Punjab.
The crackdown followed the suicide blast in Lahore’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal on Sunday evening. All schools, parks, trade, and business centres were closed across the metropolis yesterday as Lahorites mourned the victims of the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park blast. At least 52 dead bodies were identified by police and handed over to their families for burial till yesterday afternoon.
An official of the Punjab Emergency Service yesterday put the death toll at 72. Rescue-1122 spokeswoman Deeba Shahbaz said the toll had swollen to 72, including 29 children while 340 were injured.
The city witnessed on Sunday night the highest casualties in a single suicide blast in many years. The bomber hit 405 people, mostly children.
Lahore Capital City Police Officer Muhammad Amin Wains told The Nation that media reports regarding the identification of the suicide bomber were untrue. He said the bomber had not been identified yet.
A spokesman for the Punjab government yesterday said investigations into the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park tragedy were underway, adding the facts would be made public.
The spokesman urged the print and electronic media to refrain from speculating on sensitive issues so that investigation agencies could trace the real culprits.
Earlier, TV news channels claimed the alleged suicide bomber who blew himself up in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park Sunday had been identified as Muhammad Yousaf. While quoting police sources, the news reports claimed an ID card was found from the scene of the crime and it is suspected that it belonged to Muhammad Yousaf Farid, a resident of Fateh Sehrani, Basti Baitwala in Muzaffargarh.
Some TV footages showed hundreds of police and military commandoes were put on guard around the said village amid massive search and security sweep. According to a news channel, four brothers and eleven other relatives of Yousaf were taken into custody by security agencies.
“This media report about the alleged suicide bomber is not true. There are less than 10 percent chances that the man in question could even be a facilitator,” the city police chief said. “Raids are underway and some suspects are detained, but we cannot confirm any important arrests linked to the Lahore blast.”
Police sources and forensic experts believe the terrorists used ball bearing and steel nails to cause maximum damage. “At least 10kg to 12kg explosive was used in the blast carried out by a suicide bomber,” Amin Wains said. “Ball bearings and steal nails were seized from the crime scene,” he added.
Such a large number of deaths in a single suicide blast shook many people in Lahore. Investigators are working to determine what had caused so many deaths.
CCPO Amin Wains said the large number of deaths happened because many among the victims were children. “At least 29 children were among the dead,” the officer explained. He said the suicide vest filled with potassium nitrate, ball bearings and steal shrapnel were used in the explosive device.
Pakistan Army spokesman Gen Asim Bajwa yesterday tweeted that chief of the army staff was briefed on the progress of the operation in the Punjab province during a meeting at the GHQ in Rawalpindi.
The military-led raids were set off before dawn in different districts of the province yesterday as the authorities ordered clampdown on the facilitators and perpetrators of the Lahore blast.
The arrests were made in Lahore, Faisalabad and Muzaffargarh districts of the province during the joint operations carried out by police and security agencies.
The ISPR DG tweeted, “Intelligence agencies along with Army and Rangers carried out five operations in Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan since last night. The operations continued with more leads coming in”.
A number of terror suspects and facilitators were arrested as a huge cache of arms and ammunition was sized during the security sweep, he said.
A Punjab government official yesterday told The Nation that most of the arrests were made during pre-dawn raids at different religious schools across the province. “Some madrassa students are also among those detained in connection with the Lahore blast,” the official said, requesting anonymity. Investigators are grilling the suspects at undisclosed facilities.