LAHORE: Security forces on Friday busted cell of two proscribed terror outfits behind the deadly suicide attack at Lahore’s Mall Road in February, ARY News reported.
‘The law enforcement personnel busted cell of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar in Lahore after leads of their involvement were found in Mall Road blast during the investigation,” said a source.
According to sources, the suspects arrested from the terrorist cell also identified whereabouts of their absconding accomplices and security forces apprehended four of them in a raid.
Read: Top policemen among 13 killed in Lahore terror attack
An explosion near the Punjab provincial assembly in Lahore killed at least 13 people and wounded 83 others on February 13.
At least five police officers were among the dead when an explosion rocked a protest organized by Pakistan’s chemists and pharmaceuticals manufacturers.
A spokesman for Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, had claimed responsibility of the attack.
The militant group also warned the Lahore attack was the start of a new campaign against government departments. “You are on our target across the country,” it added in a statement to Reuters.
Jamaat-ur-Ahrar had also claimed responsibility for an Easter Day bombing in Lahore last year that killed more than 70 people in a public park.
Security in Pakistan has vastly improved in recent years but terror groups such as the Pakistani Taliban and Islamic State still pose a threat and have carried out mass attacks.
