Arrested in the act : ‘Militant’ caught planting bomb at police headquarters

Laskhar-e-Balochistan member behind several bomb blasts in the city.

KARACHI:

The Crime Investigation Department claimed to have arrested an alleged militant while he was planting explosives at the Garden Police Headquarters. The police said the suspect, Abdul Qadir Kalmati, also known as Raketi, son of Abdul Rehman, was working under the umbrella of Lashkar-e-Balochistan.

The gang Kalmati is allegedly associated with is involved in over half a dozen terrorism cases in Karachi.

CID officials said he was planning to blow up the headquarters when they intercepted him. His accomplices, however, managed to run away in the chaos that ensued as both sides opened fire at one another.

They also seized four bombs with detonators, each containing a kilogramme of highly explosive material, and a TT pistol from the spot.

Later, Kalmati told the police where the gang was storing other ammunition. A raid at a place near the Kathore Mor led the police to the goldmine of weapons, where they found 107 dynamite sticks, four electronic detonators, an anti-tank mine, a BM rocket and 10 remote-control switches.

Capital City Police Officer (CCPO), Karachi Saud Ahmed Mirza, accompanied by CID (Operations) SSP Fayyaz Khan, disclosed the arrest on Sunday afternoon at a press conference held at the CID office. He said the accused is a “hardcore terrorist”.

“This group is not just active in Karachi but also in interior Sindh and Balochistan,” Mirza said. It is led by Bahawal Mengal, who lives abroad and directs - and funds terrorism - from there.

Lashkar-e-Balochistan was held responsible for the earlier attacks at police stations in the city. “We have also found a hit list,” the police chief revealed. “Their next targets were famous personalities, higher officials in the police, the government as well as sensitive installations.” They were also planning to attack political gatherings.

Mirza said that the accused confessed that his group is also being funded by a “foreign country”. However, that country’s name was not disclosed.

SSP Fayyaz Khan told The Express Tribune that they first heard of the group when it claimed responsibility for the Naval Colony blast last year. “They are very active in the outskirts of the city, including Saeedabad, Mauripur, Shah Latif, Saudabad, Eidgah and Malir City,” he added. “We also have reports that they have started operating in other parts of the city and are constantly gaining in strength.”

The group has around two dozen members, and half of them are concentrated in Karachi.

Confession

Kalmat said that he and his accomplices fired two rockets on March 23, aiming to attack “people and sensitive installations”. The first rocket, however, hit the Jama Masjid Mustafa in Saudabad while the other malfunctioned and did not explode. It landed in Malir city.

He also confessed he was involved in the bomb that was planted on a motorcycle in Malir Halt on the day of the chehlum. Four people, including three policemen, died in the attack while several others were wounded.

He was also behind the bomb explosion at the family quarters of the Eidgah police station on February 7, in which a police constable, Nazakat, and a woman were injured.

The same day, a wall of the Shah Latif police station was partially damaged in another bomb explosion.

His other attacks include the one thwarted on January 8, in which Kalmati and his accomplices had planted a bomb on a motorcycle in Saeedabad police limits. Law-enforcement agencies found the bomb and managed to defuse it in time.

Last year on June 10, Pakistan Naval police sepoy Mohammad Zada and a policeman, Saud Ahmed, were killed while retired DSP Mohammad Salman and Naval policeman Badarul Islam were injured in an explosion.

The Laskhar-e-Balochistan had planted a bomb on a motorcycle that was parked close to a bank by the Naval Colony main gate within the jurisdiction of the Mauripur police. They had targeted the place because many law-enforcement agencies’ personnel withdraw their salaries from this bank.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th,  2011.