CTD arrests two ‘SRA militants’

The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) claimed on Tuesday to have arrested two members of separatist outfit Sindh Revolutionary Army (SRA), maintaining that one of them planned to explode the vehicle of a restaurant owner using a magnetic device.

CTD DIG Omar Shahid Hamid announced the arrests during a press conference at his office. He said one of the arrested men, Mumtaz Soomro, was nabbed in a joint operation with the Rangers and an intelligence agency at Tariq Road.

Soomro planned to carry out a bomb attack on the vehicle of a restaurant owner, who is a foreigner, said DIG Hamid, adding that he intended to perpetrate the crime using a remote controlled magnetic device.

The remote control device was found attached to a motorcycle parked outside the restaurant, according to him.

DIG Hamid said the CTD arrested an SRA commander, Javed Mangrio, on Soomro's indication and seized a hand grenade from his possession.

The CTD official said both the arrested men had confessed to their involvement in multiple offence and acts of terrorism.

They perpetrated an attack on sub-inspector Amir Riaz Shah in Latif Town, in a bid to avenge the killing of Jeay Sindh Tehreek president Irshad Ranjhani in 2020, he said, adding that the arrested men also provided four Kalashnikovs and bullets to Balochistan Liberation Army terrorists for the attack on Pakistan Stock Exchange the same year.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 14^th, 2021.