Terror plot thwarted in Islamabad

Police say suicide attacker wanted to hit a mosque, Rehman Malik claims target was Parliament House.

ISLAMABAD: Police on Friday arrested two suspected terrorists believed to be plotting attacks in the federal capital.

According to the Islamabad police, the suspects were waiting for Kafshi Khel Babo, a would-be suicide bomber who was to join them from Bannu district, and then had plans to target a mosque in a residential area of Islamabad.

However, Minister for Interior Rehman Malik claimed that the terrorists intended to target Parliament House and other sensitive government installations. The police foiled an attempt of terrorism in the city, the minister added.  The police said cousins Naeemullah Khan and Adnan Khan, both residents  of Kaoshay Kalay in Bannu district, were arrested from Syedna Ali mosque in sector F-8/1 on a tip-off during a raid by a joint team of Margalla police and Crime Investigation Department (CID) Islamabad.

According to the police, Naeemullah was sympathetic towards the former cleric of the mosque Qari Muneer who was removed by the residents of the area in 2008. The two suspected terrorists wanted to take revenge from the residents for expelling the cleric and had links with the terrorists who had arranged a suicide bomber for the cause, the preliminary investigations revealed, police said.

However, sources told The Express Tribune that the two suspects were arrested by CID from Tarnol area on Tuesday night while they were trying to enter the city coming from Bannu.

The suspects were then shifted to a safe house near Simbly Dam on the outskirts of the city where they were interrogated before making their arrest public on Friday.

Muhammad Naeemullah Khan had been a practicing lawyer at the district courts Islamabad for the last two years. He was also a graduate in International Relations (IR) from Peshawar University.

Naeemullah used to live with Qari Munir, the cleric of the Syedna Ali mosque which was raised by the Qari himself. It was taken over later by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for administrative purposes.

In 2008, Munir developed differences with the citizens’ committee of the area and was replaced with another cleric, Qari Saleh Muhammad Saqi, sources said. Naeem had obtained a stay order from a court on the removal of his friends and teacher Qari Munir. Therefore, on the persuasion of the cleric the two suspects had arranged a suicide bomber to teach the residents of the area a lesson by targeting the mosque, Naeem told the investigators, according to sources.

Six months ago, Naeem’s father lodged a complaint with the Margalla police that his son had disappeared. A similar complaint was lodged in Nowshera where he used to live with a friend who had also disappeared.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Naeem’s father Malik Azizullah Khan said that in his complaint to the police he had clearly stated that his son was picked up by intelligence agencies.

“He was picked up by the agencies on June 9, 2010 from Peshawar and was taken to Bannu. Later he was shifted to Islamabad where he was declared a terrorist on Friday,” said Azizullah.

Aziz said an application was also made with the Crisis Management Cell (CMC) of the Ministry of Interior where he had already appeared for a hearing on November 4.

However, the police claimed that the investigations following the complaint about his disappearance revealed that he had crossed into Bannu on his own will and a complaint with police was lodged to cover his activities.

There was a possibility that his family was aware of his activities, his links with the terrorists and his alleged disappearance, said a police official.

The police said the suspects are under investigation to extract more information to ascertain their links with terrorist groups.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2010.