Lyari’s Baba Ladla held?

There are rumours that the Lyrai gangster for whom the govt was offering Rs1 million has been arrested by police.

KARACHI: There were strong rumours  from Friday night that the police have arrested Lyari gangster Baba Ladla for whom the government was offering Rs1 million.

According to unconfirmed reports, the police were tipped off that Noor Mohammad alias Baba Ladla, was in Mauripur. They seized two TT pistols, two Kalashnikovs and other weapons from them.

Ladla is believed to be involved in the Shershah market attack. FIR No. 578/2010, was registered against him and he is wanted in over 70 cases and was known as the right-hand man of Rehman ‘Dakait’, who was shot dead in a 2009 “encounter”.

Ladla is known for always carrying his own weapons, which includes a hand grenade.

Separately, the police arrested Mohammad Khalid alias Chamber, who has allegedly confessed to killing over 12 people.

4 ‘target killers’ arrested

The security forces claimed to have arrested men involved in targeting policemen and political workers of the government’s coalition parties.

The CID presented Bilal Zafar, Muhammad Hanif, Babar Mumtaz and Muhammad Asad to the media Saturday after arresting them a day earlier in New Karachi. Earlier, they were remanded into police custody till Oct 27 by Judicial Magistrate Central Sara Junejo.

They were booked under section 353 (encounter with police),  section 324, sections 13 D and 13 E of the Arms Ordinance.

“They have been involved in target killings which have taken place over the last few years and we suspect their involvement in other cases as well,” said CID SSP Operations Fayyaz Khan.

Bilal Zafar was picked up from a house on Services Road, near al Aqsa mosque, Liaquatabad, by a CID team led by DSP Chaudry Safdar and supervised by SSP Khan. A Kalashnikov, rifle, pistol, knife and 65 rounds of bullets were seized along with two motorcycles from their possession. The two motorcycles were snatched from Clifton and Zaman towns.

The four suspects allegedly gunned down Mahir Khan in Allah Wallah Town. The Korangi Industrial Area police lodged the FIR. Zafar is said to have confessed to have killed Kashif, a political activist, near Ghousia Mosque, Liaquatabad.

Bilal Zafar, along with his other companions, Haneef Babar and Asad killed Liaquatabad moharrar ASI Javed in Garden. The ASI was killed just because he knew of their crimes, the CID said. The group also allegedly killed a man named Mansoor Asim in Liaquatabad.

They are also accused of killing activist Kaleem Ahmed with a Kalashnikov snatched from a policeman.

with additional reporting by Fawad Shah

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2010.