A woman is consoled after the Abbas Town twin blasts. PHOTO: RASHID AJMERI/EXPRESS/FILE
KARACHI:
Mystery surrounded a raid by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) in which the alleged mastermind behind the Abbas Town bomb blast was killed in crossfire while four suspects managed to escape.
A special team of CID raided a slum near Khan coach stand in Surjani Town in the wee hours of Sunday and claimed to have foiled a potential terrorist attack on leaders of political parties, head office of a party, a hospital and the CID office. SSP Aslam Chaudhry informed the media that following a tip-off from Aslam Mehsud, the recently arrested Abbas Town mastermind, the police raided a militant hideout and seized four Kalashnikovs and a car laden with 200kg of explosives.
Mehsud, who was accompanying the CID team, was reportedly injured in an exchange of fire between the law enforcers and the militants. He was taken to the Karachi Civil Hospital but could not survive his injuries.
The Bomb Disposal Squad said that they found a 2006-model car in which four pressure cookers, two water coolers and hard metal case were connected with a switch. Two policemen were also injured.
Conflicting reports
As Sindh government announced a reward of Rs2 million for the CID team for carrying out a “successful” operation in Surjani Town, sources provided information conflicting with the department’s version.
Contrary to the announcement of Mehsud’s arrest on April 12, a senior police officer, on condition of anonymity, alleged that the suspect had actually been arrested 15 days before and was handed over to the CID only after intelligence agencies were done with their investigations. According to him, ill-planning by CID got Mehsud killed during an encounter. He alleged it was a ‘strange’ raid as the informer should be inside an armoured car but Mehsud was taken inside the building to identify the militants.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 15th, 2013.
COMMENTS (3)
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Theend of evidence.......!!!!
Better killed rather then setting him free through independent judiciary.
Good Job, He would have walked away from courts after proving innocence or waited for execution all his life enjoying free meals in jail as capital punishment does not happen in Pakistan.