Lahore:
Stepping up their investigation into the terrorist siege of a police training centre near here, Pakistani authorities rounded up over 50 suspects and recovered arms and ammunition from them as Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif set up a special committee to probe the attack.
As police and intelligence agencies continued their raids in different parts of the Punjab province, the newly-reinstated Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said it was a police lapse as authorities had prior warning of such attacks.
The new committee will also probe the recent strike on the Sri Lankan cricket team in this eastern city last month.
Punjab police chief Khwaja Khalid Farooq told reporters 50 suspects had been arrested in connection with the attack on the police training centre at Manawan on Monday that left nine persons dead and over 90 injured.
Several suspects were detained on the basis of information provided by an Afghan terrorist captured alive in Manawan on Monday. Three others were rounded up subsequently, the Dawn newspaper reported.
Law-enforcement agencies have detained five more prime suspects from different parts of Lahore and seized from them explosives, weapons and fake arms licenses, the paper said.
Farooq said the arrest of the Afghan terrorist at Manawan and "some positive leads" would lead investigators to more suspects.
Deputy Inspector General Mushtaq Sukhera said police had rounded up several suspects but it would be premature to link them with the actual terrorists before conducting a thorough investigation.
The Afghan terrorist, considered a prime suspect, is being interrogated by an investigation team comprising officials of the Inter-Services Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau, CID and police.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Sharif, who assumed his office yesterday after the Supreme Court suspended its earlier order barring him from electoral politics, today set up a special committee headed by PML-N leader Zulfiqar Ali Khosa to probe the terrorist attacks on the police training centre at Manawan and the Sri Lankan cricket team on March three.
Chairing a meeting to review the law and order situation, Sharif pulled up senior police officers for lapses that led to the two attacks. He questioned the police officers about reports that they had not heeded warnings about such attacks.
The special committee will examine the reasons for the security lapse and submit its report within seven days.