The suspects were detained during raids by a special investigation team on hostels and guest houses in Lahore's Gulberg area, located near Liberty Chowk traffic roundabout where the Sri Lankan team's bus was ambushed yesterday leaving seven players and an assistant coach injured and eight people dead.

Lahore police chief Haji Habibur Rehman said that efforts to trace the perpetrators have been intensified but have not yet yielded positive results.

TV channels quoting sources said some among those held are believed to be Afghan nationals aged between 20 and 30 years.

Grappling with the aftermath of the brazen attack, President Asif Ali Zardari told the visiting Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitta Boollagama that the perpetrators would be dealt with “iron hands”.

A dozen terrorists ambushed the Lankan team's bus near showpiece Gaddafi Stadium, where the players were being taken ahead of the third day's play in the second Test against Pakistan.

The Ministry said troops operating in Visuamedu area came across an LTTE mass-scale mortar and bomb manufacturing factory.

Dummies of mortar bombs, anti-personnel mines, anti- tank mines, land mines, time bombs, claymore mines and many other different explosive devices were found, it said.

The Ministry said along with large lathe machines, other machines used for production of various armaments were also recovered from the factory.

These recoveries had been made from Udayarkattu, Sundarapuram and Visuamadu areas by the troops, the defence ministry said.

Two pointed rocket-type experimental bombs of 10 ft in height with a separate launcher, which was recovered, could go up as high as some 300 meters when ignited, experts said.

Each bomb could accommodate 200 kg of C-4 explosives inside when in use, with the support of the separate barrel launcher that was also discovered.