Two militants killed in shootout

Karachi
Two militants with links to both Al-Qaeda and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were killed on Tuesday in a coordinated operation by the Military Intelligence (MI) and District Malir police in Gulshan-e-Buner.
Weapons and explosives, including IEDs and materials such as ball bearings, were recovered from the militants’ hideout. SSP Malir Rao Muhammad Anwar, who led the operation, told The News that the terrorists had been involved in several terror cases in Karachi and Lahore, including a car bomb attack outside the Razzaqabad Police Training Centre on National Highway in which 13 commandos were killed and over 57 sustained injuries.
According to SSP Anwar, the MI had shared information regarding the militants’ presence in the Quaidabad area after which a joint operative strategy was discussed and finalised. “We raided their hideout in Gulshan-e-Buner after sunset. They retaliated immediately and, during the encounter, the area’s power also went off. However, we persisted and managed to arrest two injured militants,” he said, adding that two of their accomplices had fled under the cover of darkness.
SSP Anwar identified the killed terrorists as Mateen Khan and Qari Sajid Niaz and said both were pronounced dead on arrival at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC). “Mateen was basically an Al-Qaeda operative who was also associated with the TTP, while Qari Sajid was solely a TTP militant,” he said.
As for the accomplices who escaped during the operation, SSP Anwar identified them as Dawood Khan, a former police constable of District East, and Qari Saeed.
A search of their hideout led to the recovery of sub-machine guns, 9mm pistols, prepared IEDs, huge quantity of explosives, detonators and bomb-making materials such as ball bearings and potassium.

Who were they?
“Mateen Khan used four more names – Adnan, Shahid, Sohail and Aurangzeb – and was an Afghan national who arrived in Pakistan a few years ago. He had settled in Lahore and enrolled at a seminary. Mateen was fluent in four languages, having learnt Punjabi, Pashtu and Urdu during his stay in Lahore and knowing Farsi as his mother tongue,” the SSP told The News.
“He went to Waziristan where he was trained in bomb making with particular focus on vehicle-based IEDs. Knowing Lahore well, Mateen was sent back to carry out attacks at important installations of the city including the Manawan police training camp. He was also identified in the CCTV footage of the attack at the Razzaqabad Police Training Centre as the person who had parked the Suzuki pick-up.”
Afterwards, Mateen returned to Waziristan where, the SSP said, he was recruited by Al-Qaeda and sent to Karachi. After arriving in the city, he helped regroup members of several banned outfits and SSP Anwar added that Dawood Khan, the policeman-turned-militant who escaped the raid, had also been recruited by Mateen.
“He was also the one who provided the vehicle used in last year’s fatal bomb attack on SSP Chaudhry Aslam in PIB Colony. The vehicle was kept at Mateen’s residence in Banaras and he had handed it over to the group who carried out the attack near Abdullah Girls College in North Naziambad,” said the SSP.
“Qari Sajid was the head of TTP’s Quaidabad wing. He was the mastermind of the failed jailbreak plot in Karachi; the mud dug out for the tunnel under Central Jail was dumped at a plot he owned in Quaidabad,” he said, adding that one of his brothers settled upcountry would transfer money to Qari Sajid’s bank account.
Both the militants, SSP Anwar said, were also involved in target killing of police and Rangers in Quaidabad.

Rangers raids
Rangers personnel arrested six criminals in raids conducted in Katti Pahari, Lines Area, Kharadar, Saifi Lane, Old Muzaffarabad Colony, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Mianwali and Islamia Colony areas. The criminals arrested include a Lyari gangster, a target killer and an extortionist. SMGs, cracker bombs, bulletproof jackets, hate literature, extortion receipts, ball bearings, circuits, detonators and terrorist training manuals were also recovered.