Pak security agency foils terror plot; arrests 3 AQIS militants

Pakistan's counter-terrorism agency on Wednesday said it foiled a plot to target the offices of an intelligence agency and sensitive installations in the south of Punjab province and arrested three terrorists of Al-Qaeda in Indian Sub-Continent (AQIS).

Pakistan Counter-Terrorism Department arrests three terrorists 

In a statement, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Punjab Police said its unit in Dera Ghazi Khan on Tuesday received information that three terrorists were present near the Government Degree College Chobara in the limits of the Police Station Chobara, Layyah (some 350-km from Lahore).

"The CTD team raided their hideout and arrested the three terrorists who were planning to target sensitive installations and an intelligence agency's offices in the district," it said.

The arrested AQIS terrorists have been identified as M Saleem, M Qasim and Jamilur Rehman. Explosives, hand grenades, pistols and cash have been recovered from them, the statement said. Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had announced the formation of the AQIS to take the fight to India, Myanmar and Bangladesh in a video message in September 2014.

According to an official, this group is not much active in Pakistan. "The CTD and other intelligence agencies will interrogate the arrested terrorists to uncover its (AQIS) network in the country and its collaboration with other militant groups like IS," the official said.

The AQIS claimed responsibility for the September 6, 2014 attack on a naval dockyard in Karachi, in which militants attempted to hijack a Pakistani Navy frigate. It has also claimed responsibility for the murders of activists and writers in Bangladesh, including that of US citizen Avijit Roy, US Embassy local employee Xulhaz Mannan, and of Bangladeshi nationals Oyasiqur Rahman Babu, Ahmed Rajib Haideer and AKM Shafiul Islam.

In October 2015, US and Afghan forces targeted a large training camp in Kandahar Province, killing over one hundred operatives linked to the AQIS.

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