CTD official says law enforcers had almost dismantled the group’s network but fears the escapees may regroup their target-killing team
Two notorious terrorists associated with the target-killing team of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s (LeJ) Naeem Bukhari group have broken out of the high-security Central Jail Karachi, prompting the authorities to arrest 12 police officials for negligence.
DIG Arif Hanif of the East Range told The News that they received a letter from DIG Ashraf of the central prison on Wednesday afternoon.
Hanif said the letter was addressed to the New Town SHO, under whose jurisdiction the central jail fell.
The letter asked for registering an FIR of the escape of the LeJ terrorists from the judicial complex of the central prison.
The under-trial inmates were identified as Shaikh Mohammad Mumtaz – also known as Firaun, Sher Khan, Shahzad and Bhai – and Mohammad Ahmed Khan, alias Munna.
The letter said the prisoners were missing and had been reported to have escaped from the judicial complex situated adjacent of the central jail. “You are requested to lodge an FIR under the relevant sections of law against the inmates and the following officials, as their negligence resulted in the escape.”
The officials were identified as Prison Superintendent Ghulam Murtaza Shaikh, Deputy Superintendent Faheem Memon, Assistant Superintendent Abdul Rehman Shaikh, Assistant Sub-Inspector Faroosh Mohammad, and police constables Nawab Ali, Atta Mohammad, Mohammad Amir, Abdul Ghaffar, Saeed Ahmed, Mohammad Sajjad, Tagial and Nadir Ali.
DIG Hanif said the police registered an FIR against the officials mentioned in the letter and also arrested them, adding that he would visit the central jail to investigate the incident.
Confirming the arrests, Sindh Prison Inspector General Nusrat Mangan said that according to his initial investigation, the terrorists managed to escape from the judicial complex by cutting the iron bars of the cell holding them.
Mangan said they were grilling the arrested officials who were on duty there to ascertain how the terrorists acquired the cutters, adding that the police were also going through the footage of the CCTV cameras installed at the facility.
Raja Umer Khattab, who heads the Sindh Counter Terrorism Department’s (CTD) Transnational Terrorists Intelligence Group, accused the staff of the central jail of gross negligence.
He said the central prison was a high-security facility so it was impossible for someone to escape from there.
Khattab said the security at the central jail must be reviewed again because the prison housed many hardcore and high-profile terrorists of al Qaeda and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan as well as those involved in the Safoora carnage and other terrorism cases.
He said the escaped terrorist Shaikh Mumtaz worked with the target-killing team of the LeJ’s Naeem Bukhari group, adding that after his arrest he had confessed to his involvement in 65 heinous crimes, including target killings, and was challaned in 32 cases of target killings, including murders of police officials.
The CTD official said the other escaped terrorist Ahmed Khan worked with the LeJ’s Korangi group and was involved in seven cases of target killings.
He said the law enforcers had almost dismantled the LeJ’s network, adding that the escape of the two hardcore terrorists posed another challenge to the authorities.
He feared that Mumtaz might regroup his target-killing team in the near future, but the official made the assurance that the law enforcers were making all-out efforts to arrests the escaped terrorists.