Five months after the devastating attack on the Karachi Police Office (KPO), the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) has submitted a charge sheet against two detained suspects, who allegedly facilitated the attack carried out by heavily-armed militants of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
TTP spokesperson and social media handler Mohammad Khurasani and militants – Moulvi Sher Zaman and Umer Farooq — have been named for “masterminding, aiding and abetting” the February 17 attack on the KPO that is located on one of the city’s busiest arteries, Sharea Faisal.
Four people, including Rangers Inspector Taimor Shehzad, and police constables Muhammad and Ghulam Abbas, were martyred in the hours-long attack while 18 people, mostly security personnel, were also injured.
All the three attackers belonging to the banned TTP were killed in combat with the Pakistan Army’s Special Services Group, Sindh Rangers and Sindh police.
CTD Inspector Irfan Ahmed filed the charge-sheet before the administrative judge of the anti-terrorism courts (ATCs), stating that two facilitators of the attack, Aariyadullah and Abdul Wahid, alias Wahidullah, were killed in a shootout with the police in Manghopir on March 13 and two others, Abdul Aziz and Mehran Ahmed, alias Umer, arrested. The four terror suspects were travelling from Balochistan to Karachi to carry out terrorist attacks when they were intercepted by law enforcers.
The CTD official maintained that Aziz had facilitated the KPO attack by buying a Toyata car for Rs1 million from Hub, Balochistan, for the attackers. He added that the three terrorists had travelled in the car to the Saddar police line where they entered the KPO from the backside by cutting barbed wires.
The investigation officer mentioned that two other persons also accompanied the attackers on a motorcycle and showed them their target after they got off the car. One of the attackers, Zala Noor, had blown himself up while two others, one of them identified as Kifayatullah, were killed by the forces.
Khurasani and two other TTP militants orchestrated, aided and facilitated the attack, he said.
The TTP’s central spokesperson, Khurasani, had claimed the responsibility for the KPO attack on social media, using three accounts named ‘The Blessed Raid’, Umarmedia.me’ and ‘Mulla’. In the light of the statements of the detained suspects, Khurasani, Sher Zaman and Farooq were chargesheeted under the Section 512 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) for committing offences punishable under the sections 11-F (proscription of person), 22-I (aid and abetment) and 22-L (punishment for an absconder) of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.
The sections 120-B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) and 435 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to cause damage to the amount of one hundred rupees) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) have also been incorporated in the FIR.
