Caught: CID arrests two suspected militants

Accused sent nine children to Waziristan – to become suicide bombers.

KARACHI: The Crime Investigation Department’s Anti-Extremism Cell (AEC) claims to have taken two alleged militants off the streets during a raid in Shah Latif Town on Wednesday. They have also seized explosives, a suicide jacket and weapons from their possession.

Officials say that the suspects, Noman alias Ganja and Asim Mehsud alias Ajmal, are with the banned outfit, Tehreek-e-Taliban, Pakistan, and are experts in preparing suicide bombers. They used to send children to Waziristan for training and were caught after the authorities raided a house in Shah Latif Town on a tip-off.

AEC chief SSP Khan told The Express Tribune that 25 kilogrammes of explosives, a suicide jacket, two detonators, 35 feet of detonating wire and two Kalashnikovs were found with them. They also came across a hit list comprising names of CID officials, police, government and the leaders of political and religious parties.

Khan said that the men had also been associated with the Qari Abid Iqbal Mehsud group of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi before joining TTP Hakeemullah group. During the initial course of interrogation, they confessed to having sent at least nine children – Attaullah, Naeem Afghani, Mohammad Ghazi, Ateeq, Raheem Shah, Najeeb, Sanaullah, Sohail and Saddam – to South Waziristan to be trained as suicide bombers.

The police official said that while one of the boys, Najeeb, has been killed in Afghanistan the remainder are hiding in Karachi and other parts of the country and are wanted by the police. The suicide jacket seized from them was to be used in terrorism in Karachi.

The duo also revealed that their companion, Asadullah alias Arshad, died in Shah Latif in March when the bomb that he was carrying concealed in a milk packet exploded. The bomb was to be delivered to the house of a person named Mubarak Ahmed of the Ahmedi community.

While confessing their crimes, they said that they were responsible for the murder of a Jamia Masjid Ghausia peshimam, Ameer Hussain Shah, in Shah Latif in January 2010. Ghanam Gul and Imran alias Ibrahim also fell victim to these men after they suspected them of being police informants.

The officer said that the suspects had also been involved in the attack on a NATO convoy when they attempted to free about a dozen of their associates from Central Jail, Karachi, on April 2011. The associates were identified as Ataullah, Raheemullah, Ziauddin Mehsud alias Khan Mohammad and Akram Lahori.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th,  2011.