Islamabad, October 23: Two top Punjabi Taliban commanders, who are believed to have masterminded the recent attack on the army’s General Headquarters in Rawalpindi and other high-profile terror strikes in Lahore, have been arrested by Pakistani security agencies.
The two commanders ? identified only as Iqbal and Gul Muhammad, both hailing from Faisalabad ? were arrested earlier this week by law enforcement agencies.
They were members of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s ‘Shura’ or council of about top 40 commanders that coordinates and oversees militant activities across the country.
Iqbal and Gul Muhammad, who were in charge of militancy in Pakistan’s most populous province of Punjab, served as the link between the Taliban’s main leadership in Waziristan tribal region and the Punjabi Taliban network, a conglomerate of sectarian and Kashmir-focussed groups blamed for recent attacks in Lahore and other cities.
–PTI