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'Cricket attacker' held in Lahore

Other News Materials 17 June 2009 22:56 (UTC +04:00)

Police in Pakistan have arrested one of seven men suspected of being behind the attack on Sri Lanka's cricket team in Lahore in March, officials say, BBC reported.

"We have broken up a Punjabi Taliban network and we have arrested an attacker who shot dead a policeman," Lahore police chief Pervez Rathor said.

Seven Pakistanis - six police guards and the driver of a Sri Lankan team bus - were killed in the attack.
Gunmen ambushed the bus as it drove to a cricket stadium for a match.

Mr Rathor said that the suspect was a member of the banned militant Tehreek-e-Taliban Punjab organisation.
   
He identified the suspect as Zubair, also known by his alias Nek Mohammad, who appeared at the televised press conference in Pakistan's cultural hub Lahore with his face completely covered in a black mask.

"We came to Lahore two days before the attack," Zubair shouted through his mask, adding that they had stayed in a small house on the outskirts of Lahore.

Mr Rathor said that the mastermind of the attack was a man named Farooq. He and the other attackers are all believed to have fled to the tribal region of Waziristan on the border with Afghanistan.

"The plan was actually to kidnap the Sri Lankan team," Mr Rathor said.

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