Dozens arrested in combing operations countrywide

LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: Dozens of suspects were arrested on late Saturday after law-enforcement agencies conducted combing operations across the country, in a crackdown after deadly suicide bombing at a shrine in Sehwan Sharif that claimed at leaves 80 lives.

At least 36 suspects were arrested in Lahore, and 53 in Rawalpindi, while 73 people including eighteen Afghan citizens were taken into custody in Hafizabad.

The counter-terrorism department of the Punjab police launched a operation in Shorkot, distict Jhang and killed a terrorist of a proscribed outfit. A suicide vest and other related material was also recovered from his possession.

Eight Afghan nationals were also caught in Sialkot, while police arrested 24 suspects in Okara and Rahim Yar Khan each, and a further nine in Faisalabad.

Police in Islamabad conducted a combing operation in Sector I-9 and arrested 45 suspects including three Afghan citizens. Also, a search operation was conducted in nearly three hundred homes in the vicinity of the Bari Imam shrine after which twelve suspects including a Afghan national was taken into custody.

Law-enforcement and intelligence agencies in Rawalpindi arrested over 285 people from various parts of the city. In Lahore, Pakistan Army and police conducted a joint operation in Rehmatabad and Tableeghi Markaz and took ten suspects into custody.

Furthermore, twenty people were arrested from the Afghan Camp in Mianwali. In Mardan, three criminals were arrested while 55 suspects were taken into custody. A were also apprehended after search operation in the vicinity of the Kalabagh Afghan camp.

Twenty suspects including foreign nationals and criminals were also arrested in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir after a search operation was conducted for the second day.