Seventeen suspected members or recruiters of the Islamic State, including an engineer and an IT professional, have been arrested here under an anti- terrorism operation to wipe out the threat posed by the terror group in the country.
"The 17 suspected IS members, including an engineer and an IT professional, have been arrested from different parts of Lahore during the last couple of days," a police source said today.
IT professional Ahmad Rizwan and engineer Talha were arrested from Awan Town on the information of their accomplice Usman Malik.
Malik and two others werearrested from Lahore's Sham Nagar area last week, during a series of raids by counter-terrorism officials to nab the alleged supporters and activists of the dreaded terrorist group in Pakistan.
Anotherarrested suspect has been identified as Kamran Gujjar who is an IS recruiter, he said.
"Kamran, his wife and a sister-in-law was running an NGO and recruiting women in their group," he said.
The suspects have been shifted to undisclosed location for interrogation.
Deputy Inspector General Lahore Police Haider Ashraf said the operation against suspected members of the IS would continue.
Earlier, 42 people, including women, allegedly linked to Islamic State group were arrested from different parts of Punjab Province during raids by counter-terrorism officials.
Senior IS operatives were among those arrested, including Islamabad chief Amir Mansoor, his deputy Abdullah Mansoori and chief for Sindh province Umer Kathio, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah had said.
According to the minister, about 100 Pakistanis have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State since the rise of the dreaded terror group in the Middle East.
He said the government is doing its best to stop the recruitment for the IS and the terror group would not be allowed to have their foothold in Pakistan.
Pakistan has officially denied the presence of ISIS in the country, but secretly it has been neutralising militants who have either shifted their allegiance from the Taliban to the ISIS or have shown inclination to support the group.
