6 involved in attack on SL team held: Pak police

Lahore: Pakistani police on Tuesday claimed to have arrested six alleged Taliban terrorists involved in an attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team here in March 2009 and said their original plan was to kidnap players and hold them

hostage to seek release of their leaders.

Lahore police chief Aslam Tareen said the arrested men belonged to the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and were residents of Toba Tek Singh and Bahawalpur in Punjab province and Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province.

Eight persons were killed and over 20 others injured, including several Sri Lankan players, when about a dozen terrorists ambushed the team's motorcade at a busy traffic roundabout in Lahore two years ago.

Tareen claimed a man named Amanullah alias Asadullah was the mastermind of the attack.

The other arrested men were identified as Ubaidullah alias Zubair, Muhsan Rasheed, Muhammad Javed Anwar alias Chaudhry, Qari Muhammad Ashfaq and Umaidur Rehman Qamar alias Zubair.

"Four of them took part in the armed attack at Lahore's Liberty Chowk," Tareen told reporters in a press conference.

Suicide vests, rocket launchers, Kalashnikov assault rifles, grenades and other weapons were seized from them, he said.

Tareen said: "The actual plan of the terrorists was to kidnap the Sri Lankan team and hold them hostage till the release of some important terrorist leaders arrested by law enforcement agencies".

"However, they had to change their plan when security guards offered strong resistance."

A dozen suspects had been arrested in connection with the attack so far, he said.

Aqeel alias Doctor Usman, Khalidur Rehman alias Anda and Usman alias Gull Khan were arrested when they carried out an attack on the army's General Headquarters in Rawalpindi.

Two other key suspects, Zubair alias Naik Muhammad and Abul Wahab alias Umer, too had been arrested and their trial was underway.

Tareen said the alleged terrorists were arrested on the basis of information gleaned from other detained militants and from CCTV footage of the attack on the cricket team.

He said the weapons used in the attack were brought from Faisalabad.

"Suspects Amanullah and his accomplice Mahmoodul Hassan brought the weapons from Miranshah in North Waziristan and stocked them in Faisalabad, from where they transported them to Lahore for the attack," he said.