February 27, 2008	Wednesday	Safar 19, 1429

LAHORE, Feb 26: Officials of the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA), Kotwali, claimed on Tuesday to have arrested four members of banned militant outfit Lashkar-i-Jhangvi/Sipah-i-Sahaba from Nawankot bus stand and seized from them explosives and weapons.

The accused confessed, during the preliminary interrogation, that they had planned sabotage activities including bomb blasts in Lahore, besides assassination of key political and religious personalities and senior police officials.

Police said it had a tip that a man identified as Muhammad Asif Ali alias Hasan Moosa of Sheikhupura was reaching a bus stand in Nawankot from Peshawar along with accomplices and explosives.

A police team crodoned off the bus stand and its

suburbs and arrested Asif Ali and accomplices Abdur Rahman, Mureed Ahmad and Fahad Munir and seized from them one kilo explosives, ball bearings, a remote control and a Kalashnikov.

Police officials said Munir was the nephew of Riaz Basra. They said the accused had rented a house in Nawankot where they had to go from the bus stand.

They claimed the accused had confessed that they got training in bomb-making from a ‘neighbouring country’ and sent their trained fellows to various parts of the country for sabotage.