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Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Usman Anwar on Friday claimed a “rogue nation”—that he chose not to name—is responsible for a terror attack in Sialkot that took place earlier this week.
On Oct. 11, three attackers shot dead two people—including a prominent member of a banned religious outfit—and injured an imam at a mosque within the limits of Sadder Police Station in Daska, one of the four tehsils of Sialkot. “A terrorist attack took place in Pakistan, which was planned in another country,” claimed Anwar during a press conference in Lahore. While he didn’t name the country, it is likely he was referring to India, which has earlier also been accused by Pakistan of extrajudicial killings on its soil.
Alleging that the involvement of external elements had been confirmed from the crime scene, Anwar said the primary accused had been arrested and would be produced in a court of law soon. “The conspiracy against Pakistan was planned abroad,” he emphasized. “The evidence against the accused will be presented in court,” he said, vowing to expose the terrorists and their facilitators before the world. In a future press conference, he claimed, he would prove the “evil country” was the enemy of peace in Pakistan.
He said law enforcement agencies, including the police, Counter-Terrorism Department, Inter-Services Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau, and the Military Intelligence had worked together not only to trace the culprits but thwart future attacks. “This attack was planned outside Pakistan. A hostile intelligence agency sent a person to Pakistan. We have all the records about who is the person who came here, who he met, and even his geo-location,” he said. “They came here from Oct. 6-9 and executed the plan on Oct. 11,” he added.
This isn’t the first time authorities have pointed to a “hostile” country as being responsible for terrorism in Pakistan. In September, Karachi police had alleged that investigation into the killing of a madrassa administrator indicated the involvement of India’s intelligence agency. A month earlier, the Punjab IG had accused “hostile intelligence agencies” of being involved in blasphemy riots across Pakistan.