Clandestine operation: Suspected Muharram attackers nabbed

At least three held by agencies in Sector I-10; local SHO clueless.

ISLAMABAD:

Security agencies arrested at least three alleged terrorists from the federal capital on Friday on the suspicion of plotting to attack Muharram processions in Islamabad.

According to sources, the suspects, arrested during a raid in Sector I-10, were trained in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and had links with a banned militant organisation. They had allegedly planned to attack an imambargah before 10th Muharram, said an official.

A police source familiar with the raid said two suspected terrorists were arrested from I-10, conflicting with initial reports that three people had been arrested during the raid.



“During initial interrogation, the two suspects led to information about two accomplices,” the source said. “Two accomplices were later also arrested by the security agencies.”

The source said the suspects are being kept at an undisclosed location and further investigations are underway.

Three of the suspects were identified as Zaman, Ali Haider and Shahzad Hussain. Sources indicated the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned outfit that has claimed responsibility for killing Shias in Pakistan in the past, might be connected with the plot.

Local police, however, showed ignorance of the arrests and did not confirm the I-10 raid publicly.

Chaudhry Ayub, station house officer of the Sabzi Mandi Police Station, which covers the I-10 area, said he had no knowledge of the arrests.



Ayub said police intervention during an armed brawl between two groups of National University of Modern Languages students at a house in I-10/1 on Saturday might have been misconstrued as a raid to arrest suspected terrorists.

Security has been beefed up in the federal capital during Muharram to prevent any unfortunate incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2013.