Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf said that all evidence gathered amid the investigation of the Lahore blast Johar Town last month clearly concludes to “Indian-sponsored terrorism”.
Addressing a press conference alongside the Punjab police chief and Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, he said the mastermind of the attack which killed three people and left 24 others injured “is an Indian citizen and he is associated with [Indian intelligence agency] RAW”.
“The IG said we have intelligence of foreign intelligence agency, so today without a doubt I want to say, [the circumstances] of this entire attack lead to Indian-sponsored terrorism,” the NSA said.
Yusuf said the government had the fakes names, real identities and location of the suspects because of efficient coordination between different agencies.
On June 23, a powerful blast near the residence of Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed in Johar Town had killed three people and injured 24 others, including a police constable.
Quoting intelligence and surveillance staff, a report submitted to the chief minister had confirmed that the blast was carried out through remote control. NSA Yusuf said Pakistan had been repeatedly saying that India was involved in terrorism against Pakistan.
Speaking about whether there was involvement of the Indian state in the attack, he said the day the blast took place, there were thousands of coordinated cyber attacks on the country’s information infrastructure.
“The cyber attacks were carried out so that our investigation could not be successful and it would face obstacles and time could be gained for the network to disperse,” he said, adding that the country’s institutions were “successful” because they had been strengthened to work on cybersecurity.
“We have no doubt that the Johar Town and cyber attacks are linked. And the number in which [the cyber attacks] were done, there is no doubt that there was state involvement of our neighbour,” he added, referring to India.
According to Yusuf, the “direct origin” of the money through which the attack was financed was from India. “Money was sent through third countries; now time has come to pay attention to real criminals,” he said.
He revealed that one of the primary suspects who executed the attack, Eid Gul, was originally from Afghanistan and had lived in Pakistan.
