Three Indian nationals arrested in Lahore
LAHORE, Dec 25: Law-enforcement agencies claimed on Thursday to have arrested three Indian nationals, two of them brothers, in the city on information provided by detained Indian spy Satish Anand Shukla, who was arrested from a place near the Bahawalpur House after a blast in the area on Wednesday.
Police sources told Dawn that three Indian nationals, identified as Ram Kumar, Ram Chandar and Prakash, had been arrested from the Shafeeqabad area early in the morning. Some arms, a camera and maps were found in their possession.
The sources said that Shukla and the other three Indians were involved in Wednesday’s bomb blast, adding that information received from them during interrogation might lead to more people and their connection with the neighbouring country.
The chain of Indian spies could be long and linked to local people, they said. A highly-placed source said that concentration of Hindus in the Walled City had come to light after a visit of Satish to Androon Lohari Gate.
Meanwhile, a police official told Dawn that a driver of the Punjab Fisheries Department, who had been questioned in connection with the Lahore bomb blast, was still in custody, but he had not provided any useful information.
He said police were now waiting for the outcome of interrogation of the detained Indians for information about the blast and their future subversion plans.
He said investigators had found a cell-phone at a place not far from the blast site. The phone which can be operated by remote control has been handed over to the Special Investigation Group (SIG) of the Federal Investigation Agency for forensic analysis.
“The presence of a remote-control cell-phone suggests that the people who had parked the explosives-laden vehicle had used the phone to detonate the explosives,” he said.
He said investigators had also found a used phone card in the wreckage of the vehicle which would be of help in tracing the network of saboteurs.