The Pakistani police claimed to have foiled a major terrorist plot to attack Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, after arresting seven suspected militants of the Lashkar-e-Jhanghvi, an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban.
The Bahawalpur police claimed the seven suspects were planning a series of terrorist activities and attacks on top officials, including the prime minister and foreign minister.
Bahawalpur's top police officer Abid Qadri told mediapersons on Thursday that some of the suspects arrested in connection with the plot were involved in last year's December 8 attack on an Inter-Services Intelligence installation in Multan, in which 12 persons were killed, Geo News reported. He said the arrested persons were also found to be involved in a robbery in Jalalpur and the killing of five people in Kachcha Koh.
The accused, arrested from the Bahawalpur tehsil of Ahmedpur Sharqia after a police encounter, belong to the Lashkar-e-Jhangavi Punjab. They include Tehreek-e-Taliban commander Abdur Rehman alias Talha, Muhammed Afzal, Hafiz Salman, Sajjad, Muhammed Saleem, Bilal and Mufti Munawwar Hussain.
The police is on the lookout for two more persons believed to be involved in the plot, the channel said.
Exclusive: Confessions of a terrorist
Pakistan is still terror's playground
Exclusive: Taliban suicide squad chief speaks
'The Taliban wanted me to cut my hair'
Some Pak officials know where Laden is: Clinton