Leader of banned separatist party surrenders to police

HYDERABABD: Former general secretary of the banned Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM) Ghulam Shabbir Mallah, who was wanted in 16 cases of terrorism and crime, surrendered to Hyderabad police.

The Hyderabad Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Naeem Ahmed Shaikh declared his arrest following the surrender during a press conference at the police headquarters on Monday. "Mallah has surrendered himself in fear of his persistent hunt by the police," the DIG said. He added that Mallah was booked in several cases of terrorism, cracker explosions and other crimes in the police stations of Hyderabad and Jamshoro districts.

As many as 10 FIRs against Mallah contain sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act and four others of the Explosives Act, according to brief details of the FIR shared at the press conference.

The DIG said that Mallah told the police he was fed up with his political and other activities owing to which he took the plunge of renouncing his past associations and giving himself up to the police.

Last month, the JSMM's leader had also announced his disassociation with the party and its activities at a press conference in Sehwan. He revealed before the investigators that he, along with JSMM Chairperson Shafi Muhammad Burfat, who is living in self-exile, Muzaffar Bhutto, Imran Laghari, Asghar Shah and Ghulam Nabi Sarewal received training in militancy in Afghanistan in 2004. They were trained in making bombs and using firearms.

On their return, the group carried out bomb attacks on railway tracks, gas pipelines and power pylons among other subversive activities in urban and rural parts of Sindh. "The purpose was to cause losses to Pakistan," he stated.

Mallah claimed that they engaged in all the terror activities on the instructions of Burfat whom he referred to as an agent of India and other countries that want to harm Pakistan. "Burfat and we were also running a campaign on the social media against China Pakistan Economic Corridor project and against the dams."

He confessed to the police that his acts amounted to treason.