Pak army arrests 7 militants involved in terror attacks

The Pakistan Army today said it had arrested a gang of seven militants, including women, involved in carrying out terror attacks on a Christian colony and a court house here in which 13 people were killed.
Speaking at a security meeting here, military spokesman Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa said four facilitators who helped the perpetrators to carry out the Christian Colony attack in which one person was killed.
The attack was plannedin Afghanistan and one co-accomplice of the attackers is hiding somewhere in Afghanistan, Bajwa said at the meeting headed by Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif.
He also said that three persons were arrested for their involvementin the suicide attack on a court house in Mardan in northwest Pakistan in which 12 people were killed.

Three suicide jackets were also recoveredfrom the arrested militant, Bajwa said, adding that they were planning to attack Mardan Police Lines and NationalBank.
Noting that all the arrested were involved in facilitating the attackers to reachtheir target points from Torkham, Bajwa said that women were also nabbed for their involvement in terror incidents and would be prosecuted according to law.

He said 1,470 intelligence-based operations had been conducted in Peshawarand FATA which has significantly improved overall security situation in the restive region.
The kinetic element of Operation Zarb-e-Azb, including Khyber III, has been successfully concluded and mountainous range ofRajgal has been cleared in Khyber Agency, he claimed.

Bajwa said the security situation would improve if Afghanistan plays its due role.
One person was killed when four gunmen stormed a Christian colony near Peshawar and 12 people died when a suicide bomber struck a court in the town of Mardan on September 2.