A top commander of Lashkar-e-Islam – a banned outfit – was among the 12 terrorists and their facilitators arrested as security forces and police conducted raids in Khyber and Peshawar, on Friday. It started with the arrest of Lashkar-e-Islam commander Zakir Afridi and three other terrorists at Sapah in the Bara area of Khyber district. Three suicide jackets and six locally-made bombs were also recovered from their possession during the raid.
Later, the law-enforcers captured eight of their facilitators from Badaber – a rural area located around 10 kilometres south of Peshawar city – on the basis of information obtained from them.
According to security sources, the detained extremists had planned to large-scale terror activity in the provincial capital on December 25. They have now been shifted to some undisclosed location for further interrogation.
The arrests came at a time when a top Taliban delegation, led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is on a visit of Pakistan for talks with government officials.
