Targeted operations: After 16 years, man arrested for attacking police station

The authorities also nabbed three TTP men and a dacoit.

KARACHI:
The police have finally arrested one of the men believed to have been involved in an attack on a police station 16 years ago.

The Mobina Town police station in Gulshan-e-Iqbal was attacked back in 1994 and two officers were killed. Two of the attackers, Noor Mohammad and Saqib, were also killed. However, none of the suspects were caught alive that is until now.

The Clifton police claim to have arrested Asif Iqbal after an encounter at Khayaban-e-Tauheed on Tuesday. The suspect had two hand grenades, two seven millimetre rifles and four TT pistols on him.

However, officials said that the suspect was originally arrested by the Rangers in one of their operations and was later handed over to the police. According to SHO Shafiq Tanoli, he is affiliated with a political party and has been involved in nearly 42 target killings. One of his victims is believed to have been Tanoli’s brother, Naveed.


Iqbal is the only suspect to have been arrested in 16 years. The officer said that accused also confessed to have killed five passengers after hijacking a passenger bus in Gulshan-e-Iqbal.

Apart from Iqbal, about eight suspects, three of them alleged militants, were apprehended in separate raids across the city on Tuesday.

The Criminal Investigation Agency’s Special Investigation Unit (SIU) claims to have rooted out three members of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). According to SIU Chief SSP Raja Omer Khattab,  Khalid Khan, Gul Wali and Mohammad Jan, belong to the TTP’s Qari Shakeel group.

SSP Khattab said that the men have wrested extortion money from at least 46 people through threatening receipts and phone calls. The money was sent to their commander Qari Shakeel via intercity buses. A notorious dacoit from rural Sindh, Barkat Ali Chandio alias Janu Chandio, was arrested by the Crime Branch. Officials say that he was wanted by the police in several cases of kidnapping for ransom, murders, robberies and encounters with the Dadu district police. Separately Korangi Industrial Area police arrested two suspects when they raided Mehran Town. They seized a rifle and TT pistol from them.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19th, 2011.
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