Back of LeJ has been broken: Khattab

CTD’s Transnational Terrorist Intelligence Group Incharge Raja Umer Khattab said that after the killing of LeJ sleeper cell leader Dildaar alias Chacha and the busting of their explosives factory, the backbone of the banned outfit had been broken.

He told The News that after Chacha’s killing and the discovery of such a huge quantity of explosives, the LeJ would not be able to carry out improvised explosive device (IED) blasts for the next two years or more and soon its other members would be arrested.

In April 2014, Khattab said, he had an encounter with militants of the banned Al-Qaeda Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) in which the latter’s main commander was killed. He said the slain commander was an expert in making IEDs and since his death no IED blast had been carried out by AQIS militants.

He said there was no such term as cracker attack, which “is basically a grenade attack”. He added that whenever there was a ball bomb attack, they investigated to ascertain which group was behind it as such bombs were usually made by banned organisations’ activists who were trained in Afghanistan. “Moreover, 80 percent of the network of Naeem Bukhari has been dismantled and very few of them are remaining and will soon be arrested.”

Khattab said Bukhari had a history of carrying out attacks in Karachi and training his men in Afghanistan. He alleged that Bukhari was behind the most of the bomb blasts that had occurred in Karachi. “At present, a group of two to three people is actively involved in sectarian killings. The culprits are either LeJ men or those who are inspired by the banned Daesh.” On a query, Khattab said that to some extent, Jamatul Ahrar was also active in Karachi.