CID arrest: ‘Hizbullah’ emerges after a year
The Sindh Crime Investigation Department (CID) claimed to have apprehended an alleged member of Hizbullah, a sectarian militant group, on Saturday.
The group, which was last heard of in 2010, seems to have resurfaced and is reportedly involved in the recent bank robberies in Karachi.
The alleged member Abid Hussain was arrested during a raid on Tariq Road.
According to CID officials, Hizbullah has looked to bank’s cash counters as a source for funds of its militant operations in Parachinar, Kurram Agency, Dera Ismail Khan and Peshawar.
Last year, the CID arrested Hizbullah’s group commander Najam Shah from Karachi for his alleged involvement in several bank robberies. At the time, the department believed that the group had ceased operations in Karachi. However, investigations into the recent bank robberies and informants revealed that Hizbullah was involved.
SSP Fayyaz Khan told The Express Tribune that the group had increased its activities in Karachi to generate funds from bank robberies and street crime. According to Khan, the group’s handlers trained people in Parachinar to rob banks. Groups of nearly a dozen people each were dispatched to Karachi. “Their focus is mostly on bank robberies,” Khan said. “They get training for this and bring fake documents with them. They try to get jobs with security firms in Karachi. As soon as they get a chance, they rob a bank.”
According to Khan, the group is linked to the Sipah-e-Mohammad Pakistan and different criminal gangs in Karachi. “The operatives come to Karachi for a short period,” he explained. “As soon as they generate a ‘smart amount’ they go back to Parachinar.”
SSP Khan said that the alleged militant also provided information about the group. A Kalashnikov and two hand grenades were recovered during the raid, as well as Rs230,000 which had been stolen from a bank.
According to Khan, the man confessed that half of the money stolen from banks was sent to his handlers in Parachinar.
He said that the group is involved in over 70 per cent of the bank robberies in Karachi.
During the initial course of interrogation, he also confessed to have robbed Rs7 million from the Askari Bank in Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Pirabad branch of UBL Bank in Orangi Town. He also confessed to other criminal activities, including looting trucks and motorcycles.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 4th, 2011.
COMMENTS (19)
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@Ali Hussain Thanks for clarifying about Hezbollah, hopefully it will make all those who are falling under the propaganda to realize what the truth is.
@Adam. well said. Being a journalist and hailing from the restive Kurram Agency, I think i will be able to elaborate the situation upto the satisfaction of the respected readers irrespective of my attachment with any particular sect because a journalist should not indulge in such kind of nonsenses. Here i want to clarify the fact about the Hizbullah which is being being misunderstood. It, indeed emerged from Parachinar but infact there is no existence of any such group in Parachinar. Actually the youth of Turi tribes who were fighting with Taliban in Kurram Agency used to wave flags of Hisbullah on their positions (it was just because of the inspiration they have from the Hizbullah Lebanon) as they (Turis) considers the Taliban as agents of the Israel and the US that's why they called themselves as Hizbullah to defeat the opponents. Up to my knowledge as i am in touch with each and every incident happened in my native town on the regular basis, there is no any group or head of any such group. It is just a conspiracy against the Turi tribes who are the real patriotic Pakistanis despite the fact that the only road that links the region rest of the country is closed for the last five years. Now "those" who infiltrated the Taliban militants in Kurram region use to blackmail the patriotic Turis with such tactics after they failed to defeat them with so-called Taliban--in fact the enemies of humanity.
I think this is the dumbest news item i have ever seen. The govt has become a propaganda machine to try and make victims into terrorists. Is this the dumb justice provided in this country?! I am surprised at people who think shia are killing sunni when a shia is killed everyday in the country. Take off your biased glasses and see the truth. You think a place where people are dying/being killed everyday would ahve enough time to train robbers rather than defend themselves from the enemy?! The nation, media etc all fall to a new levels of low just to fulfill their own agendas, It disgusts me to my core and makes me sick to be a pakistani!
There is new fitna by American Mercenary Taliban and Government of Pakistan is silent on the massacre of Shia peoples by American Agent Tehreek Taliban, Laskhar Jhangvi, Jamat Ahle Sunnat. CID should also arrest terrorist those were involved in suicide bombing in Imam Bargah, Chehlum and Aashura and bring them to front.
These aren't terrorist but they pick the arms to protect their beloveds from the slaughtering of Taliban.
@Shanesahaba Your shan is based of false information. The narrow minded peoples propagate sectarian interests. Turis are most civilized and patriot. I ask you who abduted and brutually killed 5 innocent travellers in Ramazan including a lonly women and later went for Taravee prayers? They were the follower of shans like you.
This is in fact conspirecy agaist beseiged peoples of Parachinar who defended their land and routes against Taliban. The agencies may have planted their agents to get such statements to pave the way for special agenda. Hizbullah is the symbol of resistance and has no link with such activities. Those who kill innocent shia or sunnis are in the protection of agencis who are doing business by abducting travellers for ransom. Every Pakistani and even non Pakistani knows that agencies are powerfull and they can easily convert white into black. Turi-Bangash resistance is only limited to the boundries of Kurram and it has no link with such rebbers and dacoits.
do we ever think that why ttp attach on parachinar?? after american attack on afghanistan talibans start entering pakistan through the route of parachinar, at that time peoples of parachinar killed and tortoured lot of them. 2ndlly every year in parachinar during moharam they killed lot of sunnis, so jasay bovo gy waisay kato gy
this is totally bakwas to link the parachinar with the hizbullah and deceptive. there are some groups but Its a Shiite tribal lashkar (of Bangash and Turi Tribesmen) to counter the barbaric advance of TTP militants from around the kurram valley means waziristan, aorakzai, khayber and afghanistan into Shia-dominated Parachinar. Having successfully achieved its aim. and they are pure Turis.
Unfortunately peaceful patriotic and once used to be prosperous parichinaris are force to rely on so called militant groups like hizbullah because the state of Pakistan and it's people have abandoned them. Over the last decade talibans have unleashed an unprecendented terror on shiiites of Pakistan in general and of Kurram agency in particular, and in this act which is tantamount to genocide, Pakistani military establishment has provided them with a free hand. World and fellow Pakistanis need to know that pak govt has raised anti Taliban lashkars everywhere in FATA and KP except Kurram. Kurram is the place where local people have fought the taliban monster with their own meager resources but now they are out of resources and still no one in this land of faithful steps forward to help them- they have lost thousands of people in what has become their existential fight. so my friends go and ponder.. what would u have done if u were in the same situation as what Kurram's besieged people are?
@dr sabk: See my 10 hours old comment (actually posted 12-13 hours earlier by me) and compare it with what @ ET has added now to this initial article, after Police SSP's interview. Don' t my words stay PROVED. My words were (quoted below) "It first emerged in Parachinar, Kurram Agency as a Shiite tribal lashkar (of Bangash and Turi Tribesmen) to counter the barbaric advance of TTP militants into Shia-dominated Parachinar. Having successfully achieved its aim, however, it has now turned into a militant organization itself." It is a vicious circle of killings now. TTP militants kill innocent Shia tribesmen (e.g. Attack on Shias) and Hizbullah militants kill innocent Sunni tribesmen (e.g. Attack on Sunnis). So what do you think was wrong in my comment. I didn't try to COMPARE anybody with anybody else. I just stated a ground reality; a group that was originally made for good designs but has now turned militant and criminal. What's so wrong about stating that? I have seen the woes of my Kurrami brothers (Shia and Sunni alike) at the hands of the barbaric militants of both parties. I cannot differentiate between the killings of two people just because they follow different sects. Innocent people (both Shia and Sunni) are being killed and we ought to condemn both; selective condemnation will be unjust. btw: Remember the TTP also started its life as Socio-Islamic movement "Claiming to rid the society of vices and give the people Justice". But they are terrorists and criminals now. Same is the case with "Hizbullah Pakistan".
surely you mean to say that Jundullah, Hizbullah has no presence in pakistan nor any manifesto outside Lebanon
@shah.nice commentary..but totally an arm chair critic............give some space to the people you loosers.....you are comparing hizbullah with tahreek -e-taliban.hell .talibans are american associates just american mercineries they kill for dollars..but hizbollah they protect their country..........what is happening in parachinar do you know.hell not..their road is bolcked by taliban from last 4 years WHY BCZ THEY ARE SHIA MUSLIMS ONLY.......WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT THE KILLINGS IN PARACHINAR.....SEE YOUR DETAILS THEN COMMENT..................
Innocent pakistanis are mostly viscoms of arrests in these kinds of actions, who are caught out of audience.
Yes this this is most probably a typo error between either Jandullah or Hizb-ut-Tahreer! :) Nobody has ever heard of a Hezbollah presence in Karachi to the best of my knowledge! They are pursuing a better agenda of fighting the Zionists than our local low life terrorists! :)
Wow, Bank Robberies for funding their Jihad. May God bless Islam and keep such hypocrites away from this world
@Isle: @Hasan: Its Hizbullah (Pakistan). It first emerged in Parachinar, Kurram Agency as a Shiite tribal lashkar (of Bangash and Turi Tribesmen) to counter the barbaric advance of TTP militants into Shia-dominated Parachinar. Having successfully achieved its aim, however, it has now turned into a militant organization itself. It is now believed to be routinely carrying out tit-for-tat militant activities against Sunni tribesmen in Kurram. It is a vicious circle of killings now. TTP militants kill innocent Shia tribesmen (e.g. Attack on Shias) and Hizbullah militants kill innocent Sunni tribesmen (e.g. Attack on Sunnis). And as is the custom in the Land of the Pure, such Diseases spread fast. So the Hizbullah phenomenon has now spread to Karachi, Quetta and other cities having a history of sectarian violence. May Allah deliver us from the terrorists, on both sides.
you mean jundullah
Hizbollah, Lebanon.....! or do we have another Hizbollah in Pakistan?
See this happens to the fake Baitullah's Hizbullah - these are in fact enemies of God instead the army of God.