Police arrest three suspects in Karachi raids

KARACHI: Karachi police on Friday claimed to have apprehended three al Qaeda suspects during raids in the city.

The breakthrough was pulled off by the counter-terrorism unit of Crime Investigation Department (CID) police as it swooped down on the hideouts of the suspects upon being tipped off.

CID Inspector Raja Omer Khattab told a press conference that the suspects Junaid Alam alias Asad, Arman Naveed alias Shoaib Khan and Hassaan Shuja alias Amir belonged to al Qaeda.

He said the police had also recovered IEDs and explosives from different areas on the basis of information furnished by the accused.

“We have received important information from the accused regarding the activities of al Qaeda in Karachi,” said the police officer, adding that the militant organisation carried out its activities under different names and covert methods.

“Al Qaeda is running small cells in the city and every cell has its own duty. Each is provided with funds,” said Khattab, adding that these small cells select university and college students of information technology from the areas of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Shah Faisal Colony and Gulberg.

“The students are not told that they are working for al Qaeda network and they are handed over tasks according to their capabilities,” he said.

He added that some of the students upload militants’ videos and information from all over the world at al Qaeda websites. “These students don’t use phones but have a number of email addresses for their communications.”

The CID inspector said al Qaeda was also running its militant wing in the city and it had six to seven members, who were highly trained in the use of weapons and assembling explosives.

“The group launches attacks to ignite the already existing differences between communities and groups,” he said.

The police officer claimed the group was involved in the attack on the Bohri community in Karachi and had also attacked an office of a political party. Besides, it had its hand in the killings of police and political party activists.

“The militant wing of Ashab carries out terror activities, its IT wing incites people for Jihad while the technical wing prepares IEDs,” he said.

According to Khattab, the militant wing was headed by Naveed alias Uncle and other members of the wing were Abbas, Gulzar and Hafiz alias Ali.

The technical wing was headed by a sports teacher at a private university.

He said that the media wing of al Qaeda is ‘Ashab’ which distributed literature and CDs at the University of Karachi a few day back.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2014.