TTP member held for beheading in Karachi

KARACHI: Security officials have detained Hakeemullah Swati, a member of the Tehrik-i-Taliban’s Fazlullah group who is learnt to have beheaded a militant for being an “informant of intelligence agencies” from an Orangi Town locality.

The 52-year-old man, Hakeemullah Swati from Shangla, Swat, was arrested from his house near Wazir Mansion Railway Station in Mauripur in the limits of the Docks police station on Monday by a Crime Investigation Department (CID) team led by DSP Chaudhry Safdar after officials were alerted about the beheading. Although such incidents are common in Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa and tribal areas, this is the first time that any militant was beheaded in Karachi. It is learnt that the detained man had killed Khan Muhammad Swati for being a spy.

CID officials said that Hakeemullah Swati, son of Ihsanullah Swati, had just one pistol and bullets on his person at the time of his arrest. The man identified the placed where he buried the man after beheading him and is reported to have acknowledged his association with the notorious ‘Qari’ Hassan group. He is reported to have said that he got the orders to kill Khan Mohammad from the ‘Qari’ himself, who told him that the man was informing intelligence agencies about militants escaping Swat during and after the army operation.

He said he himself, Qari Hassan and another man, Nawazuddin, had kidnapped Khan Muhammad from Orangi Town and slaughtered him. The body was exhumed for autopsy and was buried in the PNR Colony after completing formalities. A murder case has been filed in the Orangi Town police station. SP CID Fayyaz Khan told The Express Tribune that the terrorist also used to collect funds for militants in Swat. “He was one of the few people who provided shelter to militants in the city,” the SP said.