KU student among four TTP suspects held
Karachi, May 13: The Criminal Investigation Department on Thursday apprehended four TTP activists who belonged to the Badar Mansoor Group of the militant outfit.
The police also recovered three suicide jackets, a huge quantity of arms and ammunition as well as explosives. Investigators said that one of the held suspects, identified as Maaz, was a student of Karachi University.
Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Saud Ahmed Mirza, while chairing a press conference, said that the specialised units had been told to expand their network as reports had been received that TTP members were present in the city and were planning something.
He added that during the investigation, personnel of the CID were tipped off that militants were hiding in the Peerabad area. Reacting to the information, SSP Omer Shahid and SSP Mohammed Aslam Khan carried out a raid.
On Thursday morning, personnel of the Counter-Terrorism Unit and the Anti-Extremism Cell of the CID Sindh carried out the raid and as soon as the criminals spotted the law enforcers, they opened fire and a brief encounter ensued. The police then managed to arrest four of the suspected TTP militants, while their accomplices fled under the cover of fire. The suspects were later identified as Maaz Ali, Babar Iqbal, Habibur Rehman and Habibullah.
Mirza said that during a search of their hideout, the police had recovered one large suicide jacket, two small suicide jackets, one light machine gun with a silencer and belt, three Kalashnikovs with four loaded magazines, one pistol, six hand grenades, a weapon cleaning kit, three improvised grenades, 10 launcher grenades, 25 Kilogrammes of explosive, three uniform of corporate company, 9 X-Det pins, security guard uniforms, two bundles of detonating cord, time delay device and other electronic items used in preparing suicide jackets.
Upon interrogation, one of the suspects disclosed that they were the members of the TTP and their leader was Badar Mansoor. It was further disclosed that they usually threatened the business community in an effort to extort millions from them so that they can generate funds for the militant organisation.
The held suspects were believed to be well trained and highly educated. They had expertise in operating computer software and other electronic items used in terrorist activities They were trained in Waziristan.
Held suspect Maaz alias Irfan was the mastermind of the group and studied at KU. While at university, he distributed hate material to students and motivated his classmates to partake in terrorist activities and extermism. The suspects were allegedly targeting government buildings, CID and Army installations.
It was also revealed militants from the same group were earlier killed during a raid in the Baldia Town area of which an FIR was lodged at the police station.
The five deceased terrorists were identified as Ijaz, Riaz, Dilawar, Mohammed Hussain, while another remained unidentified. They had also plan to target a police training centre Saeedabad.
Moreover, the held terrorists were also suspected of being involved in the bomb blast at the KU last year.
It was also disclosed that the suspects had planned to target installations after disguising themselves by wearing security guard uniforms. The Provincial Police Officer (PPO) Sindh Fayyaz Ahmed Leghari announced a reward of Rs0.3 million for the raiding party.
No comments:
Post a Comment