Suspect of two dozen blasts held

Alleged SRA militant received training from ‘Afghanistan, India and BLA’

HYDRABAD:

The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on Wednesday said that they had arrested a suspected terrorist of the banned Sindh Revolutionary Army from Jamshoro. They said the suspect was involved in over two dozen explosions and attempted detonations in Sindh since 2012.

CTD SSP Asif Ahmed Bughio, while addressing a press conference in Hyderabad, said the suspect Muneer Abro was an operational commander of the Sindh Revolutionary Army (SRA). He had been trained in Afghanistan and also by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), Bughio said.

"He was arrested from Jamshoro district in an intelligence-based operation," the SSP said. Abro used cover identities while undertaking such training expeditions. His covers include names like Mussawir, Noor, Navid, Molvi, Sayeen and Vijay. "He has expertise in using almost all types of firearms and making improvised explosive devices (IEDs)," the SSP said.

The suspect allegedly carried out targeted attacks on law enforcers, religious parties and Chinese nationals. The SSP said the suspect was responsible for the detonation in the Quaidabad area of Karachi In 2018 in which three people were killed.

The department said his involvement had been traced to the 2012 explosions in Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences Jamshoro, on a transmission line in Shikarpur in 2013, two blasts at Giddu Chowk in Hyderabad in 2014 and railway track in Tandojam in 2015. In the same year, Abro detonated IEDs on railway lines in Karachi and Hyderabad, damaging tracks, the SSP claimed.

The arrested accused also attempted to target a rally of the Jamaat-ud-Da'awa in Hyderabad in 2016 but the security prevented the attack. In the same year, he placed IEDs in three different locations including a saline drain in Jamshoro, WAPDA Colony Jamshoro and Jamaat-e-Islami's train march. But the devices did not explode.

The CTD said the suspect was behind attacks on Chinese nationals in Sukkur and Jamshoro.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2023.