CTD arrests four online illegal arms suppliers

In a bid to stop the supply of illegal arms and ammunition in Karachi, the newly established weapon desk of the Sindh Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on Thursday revealed that arms dealers in Karachi and rural Sindh and private security companies in collaboration with their dealers in Dara Adam Khel, DI Khan and Peshawar were involved in the supply and smuggling of illegal arms and issuing licences.

It was disclosed by CTD Intelligence Wing Incharge Raja Umer Khattab at his office during a press conference about the arrests of four members of an inter-provincial gang allegedly involved in the online supply and smuggling of illegal arms.

Additional Inspector General CTD Imran Yaqoob Minhas had established the desk headed by Khattab on the orders of the Sindh inspector general of police in an attempt to find out the source of illegal arms and ammunition seized from the suspects.

Desk officials conducted intelligence-based raids in different parts of the city, including University Road, Kashmir Road, Banaras Chowk and SITE Area, arrested four illegal arms suppliers and smugglers and seized 18 illegal pistols and other weapons and ammunition from their possession. The suspects were identified as Azmat Khan, Bashir Khan, Fazal Jan and Farmanullah.

CTD officials said that arms dealers and shopkeepers in different parts of the country, including Peshawar, Dara Adam Khel, and DI Khan, were involved in the supply and smuggling of illegal arms through Facebook and WhatsApp. Six of these dealers were identified as Wasif Jan, Naveed, Abdul Naseer, Gul Bilal from Bilal Armour Company in Dara Adam Khel, Moiz from Afridi Armour Company, Rehman from Spark Armour Company, and Ovais from Ovais Armour Company.

“They [he dealers] add the interested buyers to their WhatApp groups to finalise deals and take 50 per cent of the total amount through online transactions and the remaining payment is made at the time of delivery,” explained the CTD incharge. “They work in an organised way as they have their paid operatives in every corner of the country.”

It was also disclosed that besides providing illegal arms and ammunition, these dealers also offered arm licences to their clients. “In order to pretend that they are working genuinely, they ask their clients to provide them with their fingerprints, CNIC copy, and signatures through WhatsApp to fulfil the legal requirements,” Khattab said. “They also used to provide QR codes to their clients for verification purposes to assure the clients that their licence was genuine, but in actuality all the licences are fake.”

The officer said that the arms dealers in Karachi and rural Sindh and private security companies were also found involved in the supply and smuggling of illegal arms and providing fake licences to their clients against hefty amounts.

According to the Sindh government law, the arms dealers are bound to submit two empty shells of every new gun for the FSL purpose to have a record of the weapons; however, these illegal weapons had no record which had been causing massive difficulties in investigating criminal cases, the officer explained.

“The arms dealers and shopkeepers in Karachi have links with the illegal suppliers in Peshawar, Dara Adam Khel, and DI Khan who smuggle illegal weapons to Karachi without any record or paying any tax. They have been doing this business for a long time. A large number of illegal weapons and thousands of bullets are smuggled to Karachi every month. Most of the weapons and ammunition are smuggled from factories or shops in Dara Adam Khel and Peshawar,” Khattab said