‘Dai’sh terrorist’ arrested in joint raid

The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) claimed on Saturday to have arrested a member of banned outfit Dai’sh during an intelligence-based jointly carried out with the Rangers.

According to a CTD spokesperson, they had received information that some members of a banned outfit were planning a terror attack in Karachi, following which they conducted an operation along with the police and arrested a suspect identified as Zakirullah alias Shafi alias Zahid Ali. He said a pistol and a hand grenade were confiscated from his possession.

The spokesperson said the suspected had admitted during interrogation that he worked for Dai’sh and that prior to that, he was affiliated with another banned outfit, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

He further stated that Zakirullah was involved in multiple attacks on Pakistan Army and Frontier Corps (FC) personnel, adding that he was trained in Afghanistan.

The spokesperson said the suspect was involved in the attack on FC and army personnel in 2011, in which several soldiers and army officers were killed. Two terrorists were also killed in retaliatory attack by army personnel. The suspect was also involved in the attack on FC and army check post in Bajaur Agency in 2013, he said, adding that the in the attack, terrorists had held 18 soldiers hostage and later beheaded them. The terrorists had taken the martyred soldiers' heads with them.

Besides, the spokesperson said, Zakirullah had killed one of his uncles after the former suspected the latter of spying on him and sharing information about him with intelligence agencies.

Zakirullah is said to have fled to Afghanistan and returned to Pakistan recently.

Raids are being carried out to arrest Zakirullah's accomplices.

WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM APP

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2021.