LAHORE – Indian and Afghan secret services have planned to undertake attacks at important locations in Pakistan using TTP splinters and sleeper units connected with them, intelligence sources told The Nation yesterday.
Indian Research &Analysis Wing (RAW) and Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) have planned terrorist attacks on important facilities of Pakistan which include airports, defence forces installations, key educational institutes and five-star hotels, they said.
The threat information gathered through disclosures of sleeper cells of the terror outfits caught sometime back and communication interceptions at Pak-Afghan border in Fata and Balochistan.
The high threat level areas include the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, provincial capital of Punjab and major cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and important defence concerns in the three regions, said the intelligence sources.
A total of 13 terrorists, who can possibly increase their strength by including local sleeper units, have been sent to different areas to hit the targets.
The first and most preferred target of the attackers would be the federal capital and Rawalpindi.
The terrorists have been directed to launch multiple attacks, the sources said. Under the two-pronged attacks strategy, the terror raids would involve use of heavy fire and suicide hits, as have been seen in the past.
As per another strategy, the terrorists have been directed by their RAW-NDS handlers to dig in at some key facility, create a hostage situation and engage the security forces for longer period of time so as to attract maximum media attention, they added. Under this entrenching plan, the terrorists have been directed to hold at a targeted location for at least 12 hours.
The main targets of attacks could possibly include Red Zone, Serena and Marriot hotels in the capital Islamabad, said the intelligence sources.
The diversionary attacks could come at Quaid-i-Azam University, Allama Iqbal Open University, National University of Sciences & Technology and National Defence University.
In Rawalpindi, the important facilities that can be targeted include GHQ, Fauji Towers, Arid University and Pearl Continental Hotel and Benazir Bhutto International Airport, they added.
In intelligence-led and intelligence-based operations some of the sleeper cells had been caught in March and April who were part of RAW-NDS network in Punjab and had been tasked to hit some key facilities in the province.
According to intelligence inputs, parts of northern Punjab are among the key nests of the terror outfits sleeper cells, followed by southern region of the province.
In an intelligence-based catch last month, a terrorist named Sohail and linked with a TTP splinter was caught from suburbs of Sargodha. Suicide jacket, maps of airbase and a pistol had been recovered from his possession.
In another (intelligence-led) catch in Attock, 12 persons were taken into custody by the security agencies who were said to be sleeper units of TTP and al-Qaeda.
The two anti-terror catches materialised in the result of disclosures of the same busted sleeper cells who revealed attacks under the RAW-NDS network.
In a search and strike operation in Haripur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa some days back three mid-ranking terror targets had been killed who were to target the important facilities of the province.http://nation.com.pk/national/05-May-2016/rwa-nds-planning-another-wave-of-terror
Indian convict to be given benefit of law, PHC told: By Akhtar Amin in The News, May 05, 2016
PESHAWAR: The government has informed the Peshawar High Court that benefit of section 382-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure would be given to the convicted Indian national Hamid Nehal Ansari by a military court for entering Pakistan on fake documents.
The law officers including Deputy Attorney General Musarratullah Khan and Additional Advocate General Waqar Ahmad informed a division bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Muhammad Daud Khan that the Indian convict was entitled to the benefit of Section 382-B.
However, the bench sought details from the provincial and federal governments regarding the arrest of the Indian national and his expected release from the prison before the next hearing. The court also directed the government to provide required treatment to the said prisoner in the Peshawar Central Prison.
About shifting him from the death cell to the hospital or to an ordinary room, the law officers said he was kept there for security reasons as one prisoner had already attacked him in the prison.
The Indian national, Hamid Nehal Ansari, had filed a writ petition in the high court through his lawyer Qazi Muhammad Anwar, to seek benefit of Section 382-B and his shifting to the Peshawar prison’s hospital or to an ordinary room from the death cell at the jail.
A military court on November 14, 2015 awarded three years rigorous imprisonment to him for entering Pakistan on fake documents. The prison authorities have confined him to a vacant death cell as one of the most protected prisoners. http://www.thenews.com.pk/print/117607-Indian-convict-to-be-given-benefit-of-law-PHC-told
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