Lahore (PTI): The prime suspect in a terrorist assault on a police academy near here has revealed that all his accomplices were Afghans and information provided by him, a Pakistani Taliban operative, has led to the arrest of some "local facilitators", investigators said on Tuesday.

Gul Khan alias Ishrat Khan, a bearded man in his twenties who was captured by security forces while trying to target helicopters near the training centre on Monday, is an operative of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and came to Lahore a few months ago to carry out the attack, the officials probing the incident said.

"Khan belongs to Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud's group and came to Lahore from Afghanistan a few months ago. He carried out the attack with his fellow countrymen in connivance with local facilitators," Deputy Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera, who is part of the investigation team, told PTI.

"Acting on information gleaned from Khan, we have taken some facilitators into custody during raids in different areas early this morning," Sukhera said.

He said there appeared to be only five attackers -– three blew themselves up to avoid capture, one managed to escape and the fifth one was Khan.

Khan and his accomplices had rented a house in Manawan, where the training centre is located, a couple of weeks ago to prepare for the attack.