An alleged senior Pakistani Taliban official detained during an operation in Punjab

21 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –

A suspected senior Pakistani Taliban official has been detained during a major anti-terror operation in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province, security forces have reported.

The operation has resulted in the arrest of five suspected terrorists from the Pakistani Taliban and the Sipah-i-Sahaba (SS) organization, an armed splinter of the Jamiatul Ulema-e-Islam Islamist party.

Among those detained is Mehmud Musa, a “key Pakistani Taliban operative”, who was arrested in the Punjab capital city of Lahore. The other detainees have been identified as Abdul Hanan, Rahmat Ali, Muawiya and Muhamad Arabi.

All of them, according to the statement from the Anti-Terrorism Department collected by the newspaper ‘Dawn’, planned to launch “a large-scale attack in the province.”

The department adds that, in the latest operations against these armed groups, a total of 97 suspects have been arrested.

The Afghan security forces have spent years trying to eliminate the Pakistani Taliban, with whom they held an unsuccessful ceasefire last year, and have asked the neighboring Taliban regime for help to put an end to this armed group that usually hides on the border between the two countries. .