CTD arrests facilitator of Data Darbar suicide blast

LAHORE - The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) arrested and identified the ‘facilitator’ of the recent Data Darbar suicide blast on Tuesday.

The CTD Officials arrested Mohsin Khan s/o Beh­ram Khan hailing from Charsadda’s Shabqadar area in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) province and also recovered explosives from the facilitator.

Besides, CTD also identified the attacker Sadiqullah Mohmand and reportedly, he was an Afghan national and had entered Pakistan on an Afghani passport. A CTD official said they had links with Hizbul Ahrar, an offshoot of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan/Jamaatul Ahrar (TTP/JUA), which had also claimed the responsibility of the attack.

Well-placed sources say a man named Taybuallh helped Sadiqullah after he entered Pakistan through the Torkham border and escorted him to Lahore.

As many as 12 people, including police officials, were martyred on May 8 in a suicide bombing outside the Sufi Shrine of Hazrat Ali Hajveri (Data Ganj Baksh) in Lahore.