Aiding and abetting: Three more suspects implicated in Safoora case

One suspect was incumbent Fishermen Cooperative Society vice-chairperson at the time of arrest

KARACHI: The anti-terrorism court hearing the Safoora bus carnage case remanded on Wednesday three more suspects to police custody following their implication in the case. Meanwhile, the police arrested another suspect in the case.

Sultan Qamar Siddiqi, Hussain Omar Siddiqi and Naeem Sajid were sent on a two-week physical remand after investigators submitted that they had confessed to facilitating the assailants who carried out the deadly Safoora bus attack.

Forty-five people belonging to the Ismaili community were murdered and eight were critically wounded when gunmen attacked their bus in Safoora Goth on May 13.

The three suspects were arrested by the Rangers in mid-June during raids in different parts of the city. Subsequently, they were grilled for 90 days under preventive detention as the paramilitary force suspected their involvement in terrorist activities.

Sultan was the incumbent vice-chairperson of the Fishermen Cooperative Society when arrested and, in the earlier stage of his detention, it was speculated that he was involved in the massive embezzlement of funds from the society and financed terrorism with that money. The two others were arrested in the same connection, as Hussain is said to be his close relative while Sajid is their mutual friend and owned a weapons shop.

The papers submitted by the police to the court claimed that the suspects, during their preventive detention, admitted that they facilitated the bus attack. A source privy to the investigation said that the suspects provided financial and logistical support to the assailants.

Following their implication, the number of suspects held in the bus attack connection has risen to eight. The five others — Tahir Hussain Minhas alias Saien, Saad Aziz alias Tin Tin, Asadur Rehman alias Malik, Hafiz Nasir and Azhar Ishrat — are currently in jail custody, awaiting their indictment.

The move has come at a time when the final investigation report of the case was due to be submitted in the court, three days later. According to an interim charge sheet, the attackers were affiliated with the banned militant group, the Islamic State.

The investigating officer of the case has been directed to produce the trio again before the trial court on September 30, along with a progress report regarding the interrogation of the suspects.

Meanwhile, the Counter-Terrorism Department announced in a press conference on Wednesday that they have apprehended another man linked to the tragedy. The accused was identified as Shiba Ahmed and was affiliated with the Tanzeem-e-Islami, said the police, who only shared that he was arrested from a ‘posh’ locality in the city. “He used to run his chemical business in Pakistan and neighbouring Islamic countries and used to provide funds for terrorist activities in our country,” said a CTD official. “He also brainwashed the suspects of the Safoora bus attack.” One of the accused, Hassan Zaheer, who was arrested from Lahore, also revealed that Ahmed provided funds to a hospital in Lahore for the treatment of injured terrorists.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2015.