CTD, Rangers arrest alleged terrorist in Karachi

An arrested member of a secessionist group funded by the enemies of the country spilled the beans against his handlers and confessed to carrying out and planning terrorist activities in Balochistan as well as in Karachi.

The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Karachi police and Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, arrested a key member of now disbanded Baba Ladla group during a joint operation at Lea Market area of Lyari on Wednesday.

The suspect, Naseer Vesh, told a joint investigation team of CTD and Rangers that he was the right hand of a gangster Zahid Ladla - brother of gangland lord Baba Ladla. He confessed to offloading passengers from a bus identifying them with the help of their national identity cards kidnapping and then executing them . The investigation being at initial stages, sources said, they could not disclose the actual attack the suspect was talking about.

Read: CTD arrests two ‘SRA militants’

Moreover, Vesh also confessed to killing members of rival gangs and those who refused to pay extortion, besides people on ethnic basis at behest of Zahid Ladla.

Baba Ladla was killed in a shootout during Lyari Operation conducted by the Rangers which had restored peace and order in the area in 2017.

Following the operation, Vesh told the interrogators that he went into hiding in the Mand town of Balochistan's Kech district which borders with Iran.

The suspect told the joint investigation team, that during his stay in Mand, he met Baloch Republican Army (BRA) member Ahmed Junaid in 2017 and joined BRA.

Naseer further revealed that he was trained for terrorism by Ustad Shwaz Baloch at a training camp in Kech, Balochistan, in 2018, after which he carried out attacks on Frontier Corps (FC) check-posts with the help of other BRA members. He claimed that he had returned back to Lyari as per Zahid's directives and was working to form a new group to disturb peace in Lyari be restarting extortion and terrorism in the area.

Read more: Cops make headway in Rangers’ attack case

According to CTD officials, Naseer abducted Lyari gangster Commander Ghaffar Zakri's worker Shehzad Khan from Zakri Muhalla, with the help of his three accomplices in 2012, and killed him in Phool Patti Lane. He shot dead Mama Sikander Baloch near Dubai Chowk, Lyari, in 2019 with the help of his accomplice, claimed the officials.

They said that Naseer killed Uzair Baloch group members, Adnan Addu, Tariq Irani and another man in Rexer Lane with the help of three to four accomplices in 2014, two workers of Uzair Baloch group Commander Mullah Nisar with the help of 10 accomplices in Gul Muhammad Lane in 2013 and several other members of Uzair Baloch group.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2021.