LAHORE: A suspected terrorist, who succumbed to his wounds sometime after the 10-hours long operation conducted by security forces at a rented house near Arayan village Raiwind on Thursday, was identified as Tufail of Pakpattan on Friday.

Tufail was said to be a trained militant and was assisting his deceased fellow Aqsan Mehboob in carrying out their activities in Lahore.

A police source told Dawn the suspect, who was initially taken to a private hospital by the Military Intelligence officials, died of severe wounds late on Thursday. He said Tufail’s body was not handed over to police until filing of this report. A Jinnah Hospital’s morgue source also confirmed that they had yet to receive any body from the City Raiwind police.

Punjab police wrap up drawn-out operation in Lahore

The source further said Mian Imtiaz, owner of the five-marla house used by suspects, and Abdul Sattar, a paramedic who brokered the rental deal between Imtiaz and the suspects, were being questioned to determine whether they knew the intentions of the suspects or were abetting them in their activities.

However, Acting Capital City Police Officer Zulfiqar Hameed, when contacted, said police had identified only one deceased suspect as Aqsan Mehboob. He said a joint investigation would be initiated to trace the missing terror suspects and identify their network. He said police were interrogating family members and friends of the deceased suspect Mehboob to get further information about his activities and his associations.

The CCPO said Mehboob, who was an aggressive young man, got inclination for jihad and got proper training. He said the deceased suspects appeared to be indigenous and they and their other detained accomplices might have direct connections with the Al Qaeda. He said police would send evidences like weapons and RPGs used by suspects and empty bullet shells and hand grenades collected from the crime scene to the Punjab Forensic Science Laboratory as a part of the investigation.

According to a police investigator, forensic experts found automatic pistols with silencers from the crime scene which suggested the suspects were also target killers. He said jihadi literature seized from the spot also indicated that the suspects were against Pakistan, its ideology and existence and considered law-enforcement agencies officials as their enemies.

He said the Military Intelligence, which conducted the first raid to capture suspects from Firdos Colony in Raiwind, would make further arrests as they had already captured some other key members of the network.

The investigator said an extensive house-to-house search and examination of tenants record was being conducted in all the areas along the Raiwind Road, Jati Umra, Sundar and Manga Mandi.

Meanwhile, officials of law-enforcement agencies conducted raids in Kasur and Okara to arrest one Hafiz Imran, who owned one of the two motorcycles seized from the suspects’ possession. Earlier, police had declared that registration number plates of both the motorcycles were fake.

Published in Dawn, July 19th , 2014