Eight Da’ish suspects detained

LAHORE: Eight alleged members of Da’ish were arrested here on Thursday by officials of Punjab’s Counter Terrorism Department.

The suspects were identified as Nabeel Ahmad alias Abu Abdullah alias Artat, Abu Bakar alias Sarmad, Muhammad Abdullah Dar, Muhammad Iqbal, Syed Yusif ul Islam, Badarul Islam, Haq Nawaz and Hafiz Raheel. All of the arrested suspects were planning to leave for Syria and Afghanistan to join Da’ish.

Pakistan, Iran to synergise efforts against Da'ish

According to officials, police were searching for several other persons, including women and children, who were also members of the same group wanting to go to Syria.

CTD officials also seized Da’ish literature, videos, lectures, mobile phones, laptops and stickers with slogans against Pakistan Army.

A CTD officer said that the group used social media for contacting each other, adding that they had been radicalised and recruited by one of the relatives of their ring leader, Nabeel Ahmad, who was in Syria.



The group had already dispatched several men to Afghanistan and Syria.

The group, it was learnt, had facilitators in Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey.

Officials said that all persons, who contacted Da’ish through social media from Pakistan, were told by Nabeel’s relative in Syria to get in touch with Nabeel.



At least seven persons – Qari Abid, Hameed Ahmad alias Abdul Hameed Butt, Hafiz Umar, Tayyab alias Abu Ahmad, Hafiz Tanveer, Abdullah Ateeq and Abdul Azeem had already been sent to Afghanistan to join ISIS in Syria.

Seven more persons, Tanzeel Ahmad, Maria, Yaseen alias Imran, Samia, Tahir Bhatti, Ibrahim and Ahmad Lahori were also allegedly sent to Syria.

CTD officials were conducting raids in search of other members of the group.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2016.