Punjab: Timeline (Terrorist Activities) -2008

Police arrested five suspected terrorists from Sargodha in the Punjab province on January 7, according to Daily Times. The suspected terrorists belonging to a defunct group were arrested from the Darima area along with suicide jackets and explosives. During investigation, they reportedly confessed that they were involved in the suicide attack at Police Lines and the Air Force bus, and have also confessed that Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had been on their hit list. Read less...

Army troops have been deployed in 22 districts of Punjab to protect people and vital installations during Muharram in view of the security alarm raised by the suicide bombing, Dawn reported. The Rangers will protect important installations like airports, railway stations, Pakistan Television and radio offices, Chief Minister’s Secretariat, Governor’s House and civil secretariat. The overall law and order would be the responsibility of police and troops would stand by at designated places and could be called in for assistance in case of an emergency at one-hour notice, said Home Secretary Khusrao Pervaiz Khan. All Muharram processions and meetings in Lahore would be heavily protected, to “deny space to terrorists”, he said. Read less...

At least 24 people, including 17 policemen, were killed and 80 others injured in a suicide bomb blast outside the Lahore High Court on January 10, minutes before the arrival of an anti-government lawyers’ procession, according to Daily Times. The blast ripped through GPO Chowk in front of the Lahore High Court as the suicide bomber walked up to the about 60 riot police – who had gathered there ahead of a protest by lawyers against President Pervez Musharraf’s government – and blew himself up, reported AFP. About 200 lawyers were inside the High Court at the time of the blast, and others were marching from a nearby district court, according to AP. Read less...

Bomb disposal officials at the site said the bomber triggered a device possibly carrying more than 15 kilograms of explosive material and steel-balls, which affected an approximate area of 50 meters in diameter. The bomb disposal experts added that the bomber had used a high potency, locally-made device, in which ball bearings – a quarter of an inch in diameter – had been used as splinters. Police constable Jameel Ahmed said the attacker was a young man. “He parked his bike, walked to the police and blew himself up,” Ahmed said. The Punjab Inspector General of Police Ahmad Nasim told reporters that “The target was the police force.” Read less...

Police in the Faisalabad city of Punjab province arrested 36 suspected terrorists in a search operation following reports of the presence of suicide bombers in the city, according to Daily Times. Meanwhile, caretaker Interior minister Lt General (r) Hamid Nawaz Khan told PTV that security agencies arrested eight suspected terrorists from Sargodha and Mianwali. The five men held in Sargodha were involved in a bomb blast, APP quoted the Interior minister as saying. He said 37 kg explosives had been seized from one group and 30 kg from the other. Suspects held in Faisalabad reportedly include people from the tribal areas. Several Afghans were also detained, but released after they proved their identity. Read less...

The police foiled a bid of suicide attacks at the residences of regional police officer (RPO) and district police officer (DPO) on University Road beside attacks on the life of religious leaders and politicians on January 13-night and arrested six potential suicide bombers in Sargodha in the Punjab province, according to Dawn. RPO Hamid Mukhtar Gondal and DPO Waseem Ahmad Sial stated on January 15 that five suicide bombers riding on motorbikes were on their way to attack their residences when police arrested them. Later, the suspects reportedly led the police to seize 30 kilogram’s of explosives with detonators, pressure cooker bombs, promo cards, batteries with circuits, wireless remote control panels, gas cylinder bombs and motorbikes and other lethal weapons. The potential terrorists were later identified as Umer Farooq alias Hasnain Muawiya, Muhammad Ibrar, Sikandar, Muhammad Asghar and Khalid Usmani, all residents of the Sargodha district. The RPO added that on a tip-off given by Rawalpindi police, they also arrested a sixth suspect, identified as Abdul Ghafoor of Talagang, who had conspired to carry out suicide attacks on the former Punjab chief minister, Pervaiz Elahi, and Chakwal’s district nazim. Ghafoor was also assigned the task of transporting heavy quantity of explosives used in such attacks. Read less...

Police in the Mianwali district claimed on January 17 to have foiled a terrorism bid when it arrested three ‘potential car bombers’ when their car had an accident on the Bannu-Mianwali Road on December 21, 2007, according to Dawn. The ‘potential bombers’ later revealed to the police that former federal minister Sumaira Malik belonging to the adjacent Khushab district was their target; and had they not been struck in the accident, she would have been targeted the next day in a suicide attack. The three militants were identified as Wasif Ali Shah of Bannu in the NWFP, Niaz Bahadur and Abdul Rahman from Miranshah in North Waziristan. During interrogation, they revealed that they belonged to terrorist groups, headed by Faqiro and Darpa, who were working under the supervision of Maulana Said Khan, the superintendent of Fazal Qadar seminary in Miranshah’s main bazaar. Said Khan is further linked to Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. Regional Police Officer Hamid Mukhtar Gondal stated that the militants revealed that one Ghulam Nabi was spearheading all suicide attacks in the Punjab province. Read less...

The Chakwal police said on January 16 that they had arrested a suicide bomber and seized eight kilograms of explosive material and other bomb devices from him, according to Daily Times. Chakwal District Police Officer Maqsood Khan told a press conference that police raided a house in the Thoha Mehram Khan village and arrested Abdul Ghafoor. "Ghafoor has confessed to have had a plan to kill former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and Chakwal District Nazim Sardar Ghulam Abbas at a public meeting that was to be held in Talagang," Khan said, adding that the meeting had been postponed in the wake of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s killing in Rawalpindi. Khan also stated that Ghafoor and his associates were now planning to attack Muharram processions in Chakwal and Talagang. He said 23-year-old Ghafoor was a member of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM). "He also has links with the terrorist group that attacked a Pakistan Air Force bus in Sargodha last year," the officer said. Read less...

Terrorists targeted the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) at Kamra in the Punjab province on January 17-morning, firing four rockets at short intervals, Dawn reported. One of rockets landed on the roof of the senior non-commissioned officers’ mess and two others hit airmen’s residences inside the Mirage Rebuilt Factory. The fourth rocket exploded in a field near the Qutba village, close to the Kamra Cantonment. However, no casualty was reported. District Police Officer Tariq Hanif Joya said the rockets had been fired from a place about five to eight kilometers north of the cantonment. He said that security agencies were looking for assailants in the nearby villages, including Jatyal, Samah and Nullah Chail. This is reportedly the second incident of terrorism targeting the Kamra cantonment in a little more than a month. On December 10, 2007, seven people, including four children, were injured when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a PAC school vehicle outside the Kamra facility. Read less...

Eleven suicide bombers have entered Rawalpindi and Islamabad to hit their targets during the month of Muharram, intelligence agencies have claimed, The News reported. "The terrorists from banned militant outfits will aim at the political figures too," an unnamed security official, quoting a warning from the intelligence agencies, said. Read less...

A blast outside the house of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Balochistan President Sardar Yaqoob Khan Nasir on January 19 partially damaged his house in Loralai in Lahore, Geo News reported. However, no casualties were reported. Read less...

Security agencies have arrested six suspected terrorists from Rawalpindi and seized explosive-laden jackets and ammunition from them, Daily Times reported on January 24. Online news agency said the men were held from Westridge and Peshawar Road. APP said city police officer Saud Aziz on January 23 told a press conference that police had "penetrated into" the network of terrorists and would soon announce ‘"good news" about the investigation of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. Read less...

The Interior Ministry has warned the provinces that 13 suicide bombers have entered Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore from the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and may carry out attacks in these cities, Daily Times reported. According to Geo News, the ministry revealed in a letter written to the provinces and security agencies that terrorists have formed a new group by the name of Al-Quds Army and that 13 of its newly trained suicide bombers have entered major cities for subversive activities. The ministry has also warned security agencies and the provinces that two extremists of Maulana Fazlullah’s Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) have entered Sindh and Balochistan. Read less...