Lahore: Authorities have arrested five "facilitators" of the Pakistani Taliban suicide bombers, who attacked two packed churches here during a Sunday mass in March, in one of the worst terrorist attacks on the minority community that claimed 17 lives.
Police in collaboration with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) raided a house in Lahore and arrested them.
The five "facilitators" have been shifted to an undisclosed location for interrogation, police sources said today. Weapons and explosives have been seized from them.
They said the five accused belong to the Tahreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and were the "facilitators" of the suicide bombers who attacked two churches in Youhanbad -- Pakistan's largest Christian colony that houses over 100,000 Christians.
In one of the worst attacks on the minority community in recent times, two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the gates of St John's Catholic Church and Christ Church during the usual Sunday mass, killing 17 people and wounding over 70.
The March 15 attacks had triggered a mob violence in which two suspected militants were lynched and set ablaze.
TTP splinter group Jamat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for the attack.
The same group had claimed the responsibility of a suicide attack at the Wagah border with India in September last year in which 60 people were killed.
Christians make up less than 2 per cent of Pakistan's overwhelmingly Muslim population.
