Security agencies have arrested two of the highest ranking Punjabi Taliban commanders, who are believed to have masterminded the 10/10 attack on Army's General Headquarters (GHQ) and other high-profile strikes in Lahore.The two commanders identified as Iqbal and Gul Muhammad, both hailing from Faisalabad, were arrested earlier this week by law-enforcement agencies, senior officials disclosed to Dawn on Thursday.
They were members of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Shura, the umbrella council of about top 40 militant commanders that coordinates and oversees Taliban activities in Pakistan.
The two, who were in charge of militancy in Punjab, officials claim, served as the link between Taliban's main leadership in Waziristan and the increasingly threatening Punjabi Taliban network, a grouping of sectarian and Kashmir focussed militant groups responsible for the Taliban hits in Punjab and the federal capital.
Their arrest, which is being claimed by the security agencies as a major breakthrough against the Taliban in Punjab, came after telephone intercepts by intelligence agencies and disclosures by Muhammad Aqil alias Dr Usman, who led the October 10 attack on the military's power base and was the only attacker to be arrested after the 22-hour hostage crisis in one of the headquarters' buildings.
Iqbal and Muhammad are said to be of the same ranking in the militant hierarchy as Aqil, who was also one of the TTP Shura members.
Security sources say the two remained involved in most of the major attacks in Punjab this year including the one on the GHQ and the three coordinated attacks in Lahore on October 15.
At least one of them is believed to have escorted the GHQ attackers. The responsibility for the GHQ and Lahore attacks has been claimed by the Punjabi Taliban.
The Punjab faction of Taliban had been previously linked to the Marriott bombing, and attacks on the navy headquarters in Lahore, and on the FIA.
Taliban had stepped up attacks in Punjab and NWFP before the start of Rah-i-Nijat, the military operation to flush out terrorists from their South Waziristan stronghold, to stave off the offensive.
Punjab government has so far been downplaying reports about the rise of Punjabi Taliban.
However, security analysts believe that the growing role of Punjabi Taliban has heightened the militant threat not only in Punjabi heartland, which has recently suffered multiple suicide bombings, but also in the rest of the country, because the Punjabi militants have increasingly taken control of the Taliban forces and are believed to be more lethal than their Pakhtoon counterparts.
Security analysts, however, are sceptical if the arrests would break the backbone of Taliban in Punjab.