Arrested militant tells court about plan to blow up ISF convention

Hayatabad operation survivor gives confessional statement

PESHAWAR: The sole surviving militant of the Hayatabad operation has confessed before the court that he and his accomplices were planning to attack Peshawar High Court Justice Muhammad Ayub and ministers Shahram Tarakai and Atif Khan.

Recording his confessional statement at Peshawar Anti-Terrorism Court, the suspect, Yasir Shamsur Rehman said that he was involved in the botched attack on Justice Ayub.

PHC judge was shot and injured on February 28. According to Cantt SP Qaseem Riaz, Justice Ayub was in his car when he was shot at by assailants in Hayatabad Phase V area.

Justice Ayub’s driver was also injured in the firing by unknown assailants on a motorcycle, police said.

The attackers have emptied clips of ammo on judge’s car spraying it with bullets from all four sides using a pistol and a Kalashnikov. However, both the judge and his driver had survived their injuries.

Target student convention

Yasir in his confessional statement said an untimely accident spoiled their plan to blow up the convention of Insaf Student Federation on April 13, where their main targets were Atif Khan and Shahram Tarakai.

The militant said that they had brought in a suicide bomber from Afghanistan for the purpose.

“We had prepared an explosive-laden motorbike for the suicide attack. The bomber, while riding to the targeted place got hit by a car. Confused and distracted the bomber could reach the venue on time so the mission was called off,” Yasir said.

The accused also confessed that the house demolished by security agencies in Hayatabad operation was their headquarters.

It merits mentioning here that the security forces after a 17 hours standoff with besieged terrorists had killed five terrorists whereas one of the police officer was martyred in a posh locality of Hayatabad on April 16.

The suspect while recording his statement before the court disclosed that he knew that his accomplices Tariq, Murad, Irfan, Amjad and Feroz Shah worked with the banned outfit and their outfit is involved in various terrorist activities.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2019.