At least two most wanted terrorists were arrested in a joint anti-terrorist operation in twin cities, Islamabad and Rawalpindi, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and intelligence agencies claimed on Thursday.

“Both the terrorist belonged to the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP),” said a statement. The CTD and the agencies claimed to have identified them as Hayat Ullah and Wakeel Khan.

The development comes a day after the security forces claimed that at least 12 members of banned TTP were killed in an intelligence-based operation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat area.

Pakistan has seen an uptick in the terrorist activities since the end of shaky ceasefire, agreed with the outlawed group, in November last year. Suicide bombing in a mosque supposedly in the highly fortified area of Peshawar last month was the latest in the flurry of terrorist attacks against the policemen in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Though, the attack was claimed by a faction of the banned TTP but the group has been involved in the attacks on policemen in the northwest province of the country.

But the country has been conducting couner-terrorist operations in different areas of the country in order to crush the fresh wave of terrorism. The coalition government, which has vowed to have zero tolerance against terrorism, is yet to meet for a multi-party confab to discuss “important challenges” against the backdrop of terrorism activites.

The two suspected terrorists, along with suicide bombers, were said to be attacking the police lines in Rawalpindi – also known as the garrison city.

“Militants target police as they are a soft and a prime target,” KP Police Inspector General Moazzam Jah Ansari told Aaj News last week, two days after the Peshawar mosque explosion. He was of the view that police were attacked in order to eliminate and demoralise them.

“Rawalpindi Police Lines, Saddar Beroni Police Station, District Courts Rawalpindi, and Saint Paul Church were the targets of the Haji Faqeer Group,” the CTD and security forces said, “they had also made plans for subversive activities in Convent School, Islamabad Police Lines and other sensitive areas.”

The CTD officials claimed that the suspected terrorists had sent photos of all the locations to their commander in Afghanistan after doing a recce of the areas.

“Haji Group is operating from Afghanistan,” they added.

Pakistan and the United States have time after time urged the interim Afghan government to not allow its soil become a “launch pad” for attacks against other countries. The caretaker set up, ruled by Afghan Taliban, has vowed to overcome that. But, the recent terrorist attacks and TTP chief’s interview to CNN last year raised eyebrows on such promises.

“We are fighting Pakistan’s war from within the territory of Pakistan; using Pakistani soil. We have the ability to fight for many more decades with the weapons and spirit of liberation that exist in the soil of Pakistan,” outlawed TTP chief Noor Wali Mehsud had said.