Lahore: Some Manawan attack perpetrators had stayed at a Peshawar hotel

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Javed Aziz Khan
PESHAWAR: Preliminary investigation into the terrorist attack on the Manawan police training school has revealed that some of the perpetrators of the gory incident had stayed at a hotel in Qissa Khwani here before leaving for Lahore.

The source disclosed five suspects were rounded up from the Kabari Bazaar, a market located at the back of historic Qissa Khwani Bazaar and dealing in electronic goods, for allegedly facilitating the terrorists to get a room at a hotel.

Those who were picked up by the intelligence agencies and local police contingents during a raid in Kabari Bazaar last week, included Habibullah, Liaquat, Siddique and two unidentified traders. “They were taken to Lahore where they were grilled in connection with the Manawan attack on March 30,” the source revealed.

Some of those picked up from the Kabari Bazaar were released after they were questioned for a couple of days. It was learnt investigators of the Manawan police training school first found a lead to a hotel in Qissa Khwani, suspected to have provided rooms to the attackers before they left for Lahore.

“The management of the hotel in Peshawar argued they had refused to rent out any room to strangers without any guarantor, as directed by the police and other government agencies. Later, some locals approached the hotel management with a request to let the strangers stay at their hotel for one night,” the source disclosed. Later, intelligence officials searched for the guarantor and raided a shop in Kabari Bazaar, from where they held five persons.

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