Karachi A fifth suspect in the Safoora Goth killings has been arrested and the weapons and vehicle used in that attack have also been found, police said on Friday. Counter-terrorism department Raja Umer Khattab said Tahir Minhas and the three other men arrested earlier in the case had told interrogators about their associate Asadur Rehman alias Malik, who was hiding in Gulshan-e-Maymar. A CTD team raided his hideout and arrested him. During interrogation, Asad disclosed that he, along with Tahir Minhas and their other associates, went to Safoora Goth on May 13 in a Coure car to target a bus carrying members of the Ismaili community. They carried their weapons and extra clothes in the vehicle. He was among those who fired at the passengers and later they returned to their car, changed their clothes and sped away. Asad was born in Nazimabad, Karachi in 1986 and had passed his matriculation examinations and A-levels from a private school in 2006. In 2009, he met Saad Aziz who had motivated him to participate in jihadist activities. However, he kept studying until finished his BCom from the University of Karachi in 2010. Later, he started working at a call centre of a private company, got married and now has a two-year-old son. In 2014, he met Tahir Minhas, the leader of the group involved in the Safoora attack, and informed him about his financial problems. Tahir gave him Rs50,000 for his wife’s delivery charges. Afterwards, Tahir called him for a group chat held using Talkray, a social networking app. The app allowed the group to hold audio and video conversations in chat sessions held at specific times. Khattab said Asad visited Hyderabad with Minhas for monitoring the activities of their intended targets. He was later sent to Quetta for training in October 2014. There, he learned to make bombs and use weapons including sub-machine guns, RPG rockets and grenades. After he returned to Karachi, he met Minhas and they planned a bank robbery in Hyderabad. Asad and his associates went to Hyderabad and robbed a bank in the A-Market police jurisdiction. While committing the heist, they also killed two paramilitary soldiers in a shootout. Later, they attacked policemen in Karachi. The attacked a police van at the Brigade police station and also hurled a grenade at a Preedy police station van on MA Jinnah Road, injuring some cops. On March 10 this year, the group attacked a police mobile at the Preedy police station and then fired gunshots in Arambagh on the same day, killing three policemen. Khattab said after these attacks, they group planned the attack on the Ismaili community and the weapons for this purpose were delivered at Asad’s house. Asad also arranged the car for the attack. On May 13, Asad left his house in the car, picked his associates and headed towards Safoora Goth to carry out the attack. The other suspects Tahir Hussain Minhas, alias Sain Nazir, Zahid, Naveed, Khalil and Mota, was identified as the mastermind behind the Safoora attack. He passed his matriculation examinations and was engaged in terrorist activities since 1998, having expertise in bomb-making and use of arms including RPG-7s, Kalashnikovs and pistols. The second suspect was identified as Saad Aziz, alias Tin Tin and John. He is holds a BBA degree from the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi. He is also said to be the mastermind behind the killing of rights activist and T2F director Sabeen Mahmud in Karachi. The third suspect Muhammad Azhar Ishrat, alias Majid, has a degree in electronics engineering from the Sir Syed University and is involved in terrorism since 2011. The fourth suspect was identified as Hafiz Nasir, alias Yasir, who has an MA degree in Islamic studies from the University of Karachi and is engaged in terrorist activities since 2013. Earlier, the Sindh chief minister had formally disclosed the identities of the four men involved in the attack and said a joint investigation team would be formed to ascertain the arrested suspects’ terror links.
Remand till 14th One more suspect of the Safoora bus massacre was remanded to police custody whereas remands of the four accused, arrested earlier, were extended till June 14 by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Friday, our reporter Zaib Azkaar Hussain reported. Accused Saad Aziz, Muhammad Azhar Ishrat, Haafiz and Tahir Hussain were already under detention whereas another co-accused, Asadur Rehman, was produced in court for the first time. Earlier, the ATC had sent the four accused on a 14-day physical remand on May 22. Arrested by the Sindh police on May 19, a week later after the attack, three out of four of the accused were said to have acquired professional degrees from some of the affluent universities of Karachi. Saad Aziz, with aliases Tin Tin and John, was a BBA degree holder from the Institute of Business Administration and was according to police officials also the mastermind of the murder of NGO activist and head of social forum The Second Floor, Sabeen Mahmud in Karachi. Muhammad Azhar Ishrat alias Majid had a degree in Electronics Engineering from Sir Syed University and was said to have been involved in terrorist activities since 2011. The third accused, Hafiz Nasir alias Yasir had an MA degree in Islamic Studies from the University of Karachi and had been, according to police, engaged in terrorist activities since 2013. Officials maintain that Tahir Hussain Minhas (with aliases Sain Nazir, Zahid, Naveed, Khalil, Mota) was the least educated having only acquired a qualification of matriculation. He was identified as the mastermind of the Safoora carnage. It was said that he had been engaged in terrorist activities since 1998, with bomb-making as an expertise. The Investigation Officer (IO) informed the court that the police had recovered two pistols used by the accused in the incident. Forty five people were killed, including 17 women, while 10 were injured after terrorists attacked a bus belonging to the Ismaili community on May 13.
