CTD arrests ‘terrorists’ affiliated with AQIS and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi

Officials claim to have foiled major terrorist activities by arresting the alleged gang of militants

KARACHI: Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Sindh police claim to have foiled major terrorist activities in the city by arresting a gang of militants belonging to alQaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

CTD officials said that the militants belonging to different banned outfits intended to carry out terrorist activities. Two alleged commanders of the AQIS, Irshad alias Zahid and Qari Muhammad Mohsin, and one commander of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Qari Muhammad Akram, are among the militants who have been arrested, CTD officials said. The other suspects have been identified as Maulana Abdul Wahab, Syed Riaz Anwar, Mohsin Khan, Anus Ahmed alias Unsi, Muhammad Ashraf, Abdul Wakeel, Raghib and Ovais alias Kashi.





"We have arrested 11 militants, including three of their commanders," claimed CTD incharge Ali Raza at a press conference at his office on Thursday evening. The officer said that the arrests were made when the CTD team conducted a raid on a tip-off about the presence of militants of terrorist groups at their hideout in Khan Muhammad Colony in Baldia Town late on Tuesday night.

Ten bottle bombs, an explosive-laden rickshaw, five rockets, a rocket launcher, ten hand grenades, ten TT pistols, four awan bombs, two kalashnikovs, two parcel bombs, surgical masks, a hit list, jihadi literature, pamphlets, threatening letters and hundreds of ammunitions were seized from the hideout.



"This gang has been involved in cases of terrorism and target killings in Karachi from the past two years, but in December last year they went underground and now they were again plotting to carry out major terror activities," said the CTD incharge, while quoting the initial investigations.

The CTD claimed that Mohsin, one of the alleged commanders of AQIS who has been arrested, was the incharge of the target killings' squad in Karachi, while the other commanders, Irshad and Akram, were the incharge of carrying out targeted killings in Karachi from the last two years. "They were operating the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in Karachi in nexus with AQIS from the last few years," CTD official said.

"The recovery of the literature, maps and other stuffs confirm that they were planning to carry out a major terror activity [similar to the attack on] Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, at one of the sensitive installation on Sharae Faisal and everything like planning and monitoring was done for that purpose." At least 28 people, including 10 attackers, were killed in an attack by militants on the Karachi airport on June 2014, when gunmen disguised as police guards stormed the terminal after indiscriminate firing with machine guns and a rocket launcher.

Other than the plan to carry major attacks, a hit list of names was also seized from their possession that had names of senior police officials and their offices.