Police apprehend five Jundullah men

Plot to attack Muharram procession uncovered.

KARACHI: The Karachi police arrested five alleged militants from the outlawed terrorist group, Jundullah, foiling a terrorism bid while they were at it.

Authorities claim that the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) arrested the men from the Artillery Maidan police limits. The alleged terrorists were sent to Karachi via the Khyber Mail from rural Punjab and Waziristan by their Ameer and were going somewhere in a taxi. They have been identified as Syed Kamran alias Waqar alias Bilal, Salar Mohammad alias Khalid alias Danish, Amjad Khan alias Kargil alias Shahji, Farhan Khan alias Hussain and Mohammad Munir alias Azeem. Kamran’s name is also placed on the Crime Investigation Department’s red book.

The men were all set to carry out an attack during Muharramul Haram, Karachi Additional IG Ghulam Shabbir Sheikh told the press at the Central Police Office on Tuesday. The men had a map of Karachi Central Jail and a hit list with them. It appears that they were trying to set some of their imprisoned companions free, explained the inspector. These men were also involved in a City Court attack in July in which they managed to free three of their associates. The men freed, Shakeeb Farooqi, Murtaza Enayat and Wazir Mohammad, who were arrested in connection with a bomb blast at Lighthouse Signal on Ashura in 2009 and an attack on the police.

Police constable Long Khan and a fourth terrorist, Murad Shah, were killed in that attack. The AIG said that their five most recent arrests are the same men who killed 16 people and wounded 60 others in the bomb attack at Jinnah hospital in Chehlum 2010. “Apart from this, these are the same men who attacked an Aga Khan Hospital money van and stole Rs8 million, the Gulistan-e-Jauhar police station and a corps commander convoy,” said Sheikh.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2011.