Another suspected mastermind of Safoora attack arrested

Weapons and car used in Safoora incident have been recovered from Asadur Rehman's possession

KARACHI: The Counter-Terrorism Department on Friday arrested another suspect allegedly involved in the brutal Safoora attack that left at least 44 people of the Ismaili community dead in Karachi last month.

CTD in charge Raja Umer Khitab said the culprit, Asadur Rehman, is also involved in eight other cases of heinous crimes.

Weapons and the car used in Safoora incident has also been recovered from his possession.

An anti-terrorism court in Karachi on Friday sent Rehman along with four other suspects who were involved in Safoora incident on judicial remand for seven days .

Read: Arrested Safoora attack mastermind behind Sabeen’s murder: Sindh CM

Further, four special committees have been formed by IGP Sindh to interrogate the four suspects along with Asadur Rehman. Each committee will be headed by a DIG ranked officer and will consist of two SSPs.

Zone East DIG Munir Shaikh will be the head of second committee while SSPs Zulfiqar Mirza and Altaf Malik will be the members of his team.

The third committee will be chaired by Zone Central DIG Feroz Shah and will consist of SSPs Arab Maher and Latif Sidduqui. The fourth committee will be headed by Hyderabad DIG Sanaullah Abbasi and Hyderabad SSPs Irfan Baloch and Rashid Hayat will accompany him.

Sources said that the teams will review the investigation and will also interrogate the suspects while and will also be responsible of their security when they are produced before the court.

The four suspects involved in the deadly bus attack on May 13 were arrested by the police on earlier last month.

They were arrested from Karachi and other parts of rural Sindh, AIG Ghulam Qadir Thebo revealed during a press conference held in Karachi.

They were rounded up based on information provided by the suspects who have already been arrested in connection with the attack, he said, adding that special police teams were making all out efforts to arrest the remaining suspects.

Read: 43 dead, eight injured in bus attack on Karachi’s Ismaili community

On May 13, gunmen on motorcycles boarded a bus and opened fire on commuters belonging to the Ismaili community in Karachi, killing at least 44 people.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah announced that the suspects arrested were also involved in a number of other high profile attacks in Karachi recently, including the murder of The Second Floor café director Sabeen Mahmud.