‘SSP Chaudhry Aslam’s driver was in cahoots with terrorists’

Police officer Kamran was affiliated with LeJ and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan for a long time

The driver of SSP Chaudhry Aslam, Karachi’s top anti-terror cop who was killed in January 2014, had helped banned outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in attacking his house in September 2011, a Counter-Terrorism Department official said on Tuesday.

CTD Intelligence Wing chief SSP Omer Shahid Hamid said one of the men arrested in a raid in Korangi a day earlier had disclosed this information to police.

The raid in wee hours of Monday was led by CTD Transnational Terrorist Intelligence Group chief Raja Umer Khattab.

Dildaar alia Chacha, the incharge of an LeJ sleeper cell, was gunned down in a shootout and his four associates including Qari Jawed were arrested.

The LeJ sleeper cell chief and accomplices were involved in many terrorist attacks since 2010, including the attacks on the CTD Civil Lines building and the house of SSP Aslam.

SSP Hamid told The News that during interrogation, the LeJ terrorists revealed that SSP Aslam’s driver, a police officer named Kamran, associated with the banned outfit for a long time.

Kamran was an activist of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan’s Qayyumabad wing and also lived there.

Qari Jawed told the interrogators that Kamran had approached LeJ terrorist Imran Bhatti (later killed in 2013) and assured him that he would facilitate them in targeting SSP Aslam at his residence.

SSP Hamid said the terrorists had disclosed that Kamran later met with Dildaar and others and showed them the way to reach SSP Aslam’s house.

Later, LeJ terrorists prepared a plan and recruited an attacker to drive an explosives-laden vehicle, prepared by Dildaar, into SSP Aslam’s house.

Kamran was killed along with SSP Aslam in the attack in January 2014. Hamid said they were questioning Kamran’s family and further details would be furnished at the earliest.