4 TTP men arrested from graveyard
Police say men were holed up with a cache of ammunition and suicide vests.
KARACHI:
Police arrested four suspected Taliban members from an isolated graveyard in the impoverished Muhammad Khan Colony after a brief encounter, officials said on Thursday.
The militants who all belong to the Punjab were swept up in a raid in the evening by police along with federal security agents in Mochko graveyard where they were meeting.
“They have plans to attack the Muharram processions somewhere in Soldier Bazaar and Nishtar Park,” said a police officer who is part of the interrogation team. “Right now we don’t know when they exactly come to Karachi or who would have been the suicide bomber.”
No one was injured in the shoot-out but police mobile vans were damaged. Police did not share the exact details of the operation.
Speaking at a press conference, CID SSP Aslam Khan said that the men were part of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. He said the suicide bombers were apprehended in the evening.
According to the police, three suicide jackets, half a dozen hand grenades, three AK-47s, 30 feet of detonating cable, more than a hundred rounds of bullets, a 9mm pistol and 20 kilogrammes of highly explosive material were seized from them.
Police said that the men had bought the weapons from Chaman, a border town with Afghanistan, in Balochistan. They belonged to the Al-Badar section of the TTP, the police said.
The men apparently confessed that they had attacked and injured a Hindu trader named Atima Ram near the City Court a few months back.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2011.
Police arrested four suspected Taliban members from an isolated graveyard in the impoverished Muhammad Khan Colony after a brief encounter, officials said on Thursday.
The militants who all belong to the Punjab were swept up in a raid in the evening by police along with federal security agents in Mochko graveyard where they were meeting.
“They have plans to attack the Muharram processions somewhere in Soldier Bazaar and Nishtar Park,” said a police officer who is part of the interrogation team. “Right now we don’t know when they exactly come to Karachi or who would have been the suicide bomber.”
No one was injured in the shoot-out but police mobile vans were damaged. Police did not share the exact details of the operation.
Speaking at a press conference, CID SSP Aslam Khan said that the men were part of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. He said the suicide bombers were apprehended in the evening.
According to the police, three suicide jackets, half a dozen hand grenades, three AK-47s, 30 feet of detonating cable, more than a hundred rounds of bullets, a 9mm pistol and 20 kilogrammes of highly explosive material were seized from them.
Police said that the men had bought the weapons from Chaman, a border town with Afghanistan, in Balochistan. They belonged to the Al-Badar section of the TTP, the police said.
The men apparently confessed that they had attacked and injured a Hindu trader named Atima Ram near the City Court a few months back.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2011.