Monday's terrorist attack on the Manawa Police Training School in Lahore was part of the pressure tactics used by the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), led by Baitullah Mehsud, to secure release of eight of its militants arrested after the assault on the Sri Lankan cricket team earlier this month."It was the third attack as part of the TTP campaign to press the government for the release of eight of its members who were arrested in connection with the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team on March 3," a Peshawar-based security official told this correspondent over the telephone.
"Earlier, two attacks were launched by the TTP - one on a mosque in Khyber Agency and the other on a police office in Sitara Market of Islamabad - as part of the same campaign," said the official who wished not to be named.
The source disclosed that 20 attackers, aged between 18 and 20 years, were sent to Islamabad and Lahore by the TTP following the arrest of its members. Apparently, he said, the suicide bombers had been tasked with targeting the Punjab police.
The assault on the Police Training School on the outskirts of Lahore led to an eight-hour joint operation by police, Rangers and army, which ended in the arrest of four terrorists and killing of another four.
"Intelligence outfits have also received a report about the possibility of an attack on the Police Training College in Hangu district of the NWFP.
The college high-ups were informed by various intelligence agencies during the past two weeks of a possible terrorist strike," the official revealed. "The terrorist have so far failed to attack the Hangu Police College but they did it in Lahore," he remarked.