CTD to monitor 116 'terrorists' released due to lack of evidence

Names of suspected militants, political party workers, land grabbers to be included in the Fourth Schedule

KARACHI: As many as 116 suspected hardcore militants arrested by the Sindh police's Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and other law enforcement agencies have either been granted bail or been exonerated by the courts due to lack of evidence in the last year, The Express Tribune has learnt.

It is feared that these freed militants, belonging to various banned militant outfits such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, alQaeda, alQaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan, have re-joined their organisations and are planning to resume terrorist activities. Keeping this looming threat in view, the CTD has devised a strategy to monitor these suspected militants.

"They are hardcore militants and we cannot let them roam freely because they are threat to the people," said CTD SSP Omar Shahid Hamid. "There were multiple reasons for their release by the courts. One of them was [a weak] prosecution. But it does not matter how they were released, what matters is that they are re-joining the terror outfits," he said.



The officer added that the CTD has devised a strategy to deal with the situation. One of the options under consideration was to book the released suspects under new cases but it was discarded, as the department did not consider it feasible to register new cases for all the suspected militants at the same time. The CTD finally decided to put the suspected militants under surveillance by including their names in the Fourth Schedule.

"In the initial phase, we have approached the home department to put their names on the Fourth Schedule," said SSP Hamid, adding that the CTD has recommended the names of 116 suspects released in 2016 to be included in the Fourth Schedule along with 166 new suspects. The officer said the data of the suspects in the Fourth Schedule has been digitalised at district and police station levels and the data of around 435 suspects has been updated.

The names of the 166 new suspects have been recommended by the Sindh police for the inclusion in the Fourth Schedule. These suspects include land grabbers and many workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. However, the CTD incharge, Mazhar Mashwani, told The Express Tribune that there is a strong possibility that the names of many of these suspects will not be approved by the home department, as purpose of the Fourth Schedule is to keep track of suspected terrorists, not political parties' workers and land grabbers.



The Fourth Schedule is a list of 'proscribed' persons, suspected of terrorism and/or sectarianism, under Section 11EE of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997. The name of a suspect is placed in the Fourth Schedule list for three years usually but the inclusion of a name can be extended for a longer period. It is mandatory for people whose names are on the list to register themselves with the local police regularly. They are also bound to seek permission from the police before leaving the city.