Qaeda head killed in Kala Shah Kaku operation: minister

LAHORE
Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada has said due to a successful operation carried out by law-enforcement agencies, the head of al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Punjab was killed in Kala Shah Kaku three days ago and he was planning to target headquarters of Intelligence Bureau on Mall Road.
The minister was addressing a press conference here on Wednesday. Punjab government spokesman Syed Zaeem Hussain Qadri, IGP Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera and Additional IG Counter Terrorism Department were present.
He said in the light of information received from arrested terrorists, special teams have been sent to Karachi, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and other areas. He said due to Zarb-e-Azb and Khyber-II operations, terrorists have dispersed and a number of them have left the country. He said a plan was hatched by some terrorists to carry out terrorist attack in Lahore and they also had the support of al-Qaeda leadership. He said the nominated leadership of al-Qaeda in Punjab was leading this plan. He said in the light of information given by ISI, an alert was issued a week ago and secret agencies of Punjab started their work. The Home minister said law enforcement agencies also knew that Lahore was the target of terrorists. He congratulated Pak Army, ISI, Counter Terrorism Department and other law enforcement agencies for taking timely action and foiling the designs of terrorists.
Khanzada said there were intelligence reports that three people had left from Wana, South Waziristan, out of which, two were suicide bombers and third was their leader. These terrorists got on a bus on June 24 from Dera Ismail Khan and their leader went back. He said two terrorists stayed at a Tableghi centre for two nights from which they were brought to Al Raheem Housing Society of Al-Kareem Town in Kala Shah Kaku where a terrorist had already rented a house for five thousand rupees per month. He said after intelligence surveillance when the law enforcement agencies were sure that all terrorists were in the house, ISI, CTD and other forces conducted a raid in which two terrorists Hamza and Abdullah were injured in firing who were taken into custody. A member of intelligence agency was also injured in the firing from inside the house. He said that firing between security forces and terrorists continued for 20 to 25 minutes during which a terrorist came out and wanted to carry-out a suicide attack on security agencies but he was killed. He said among the terrorists, who were killed Faisal Mubashir belonged to Faisalabad, Saqib Hussain to Rawalpindi and Muhammad Nauman of Tank whereas the terrorist who wanted to carry out suicide attack was named Abdali and was the leader of the al-Qaeda for Pakistan and Punjab.
The minister said Maulana Asif Umer of India was the leader of al-Qaeda for the whole subcontinent and in Afghanistan at present. He said earlier the leader for this area was Mahmood who was an American nationality holder and was killed in a drone attack. Shuja Khanzada said four Kalashnikovs, 26 loaded magazines, two rocket launchers, 32 launchers, four suicide jackets, 41 hand grenades, four remote control devises, 15 detonators, pistols, bullets, 15 kilograms RDX and other latest weapons had been recovered from the terrorists. The terrorists received training in an al-Qaeda camp for five months. Replying to questions, he said intelligence was being shared with Afghanistan. He said in the light of information received from terrorists, special teams had been sent to Karachi, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad. He said effective measures were being taken for controlling funding to terrorists. A briefing was also given in the press conference while video statements of terrorists and the weapons recovered from the house were also shown to the journalists.