Rising influence of Daesh in Balochistan,Sindh real challenge: CTD

ISLAMABAD: One of Sindh’s top counterterrorism institutions termed ultra extremist terrorist group — Islamic State (IS), commonly known as Daesh — a serious security challenge for the province, a real threat to Karachi in particular.

“Rising influence of the Islamic State [Daesh] near Balochistan border as well as in Karachi is a real challenge,” revealed the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Sindh in its latest policy report where senior officials prepared a future strategy to cope with quick rise of Daesh in the province. “We term Sindh a ‘fertile growth area’ for IS. To nip this evil in the bud, we are raising a special security force to counter Daesh — over 1, 500 personnel are being trained by the military,” said a senior official of CTD Sindh who was a part of the team which has prepared this policy report.

New Anti-IS (Daesh) policy came out as a result of a study where 14 jet-black terrorists who took part in the Safoora Goth bus attack, Karachi Airport attack and Mehran Airbase attack gave their viewpoint, added the official who did not want to be named.

The agencies posed one question to these terrorists asking what they will do if they were freed. They said, “We will join IS (Daesh) in Syria,” revealed the official while terming them ‘lone wolfs’.

The CTD Sindh arrested some 373 jet-black terrorists who had affiliation with the banned outfits where some two dozen had enjoyed contact with the IS. “All [two dozen] were inspired by the IS — this network was getting stronger in the port city,” confirmed Add Inspector General Police Sanaullah Abbasi. Recent attacks conducted by international banned outfits pose a real threat to law enforcers towards possible intrusion of ultra Islamic groups, the IS in particular, into Sindh, Abbasi said.

More than 209 terrorists are linked with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), revealed the policy report made available with this correspondent. Some 53 terrorists were operating for al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent while 73 have had links with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in the province. The rest of around two dozen were operating for other banned organisations, revealed the report.

The counterterrorism officials believe that all these terrorists who were arrested — 2014 to 2017 — have been operating in the port city of Karachi.

Authorities under this policy also plan to establish a CTD Center in Shaheed Benazirabad in a move to break the hotbed of Daesh in interior Sindh. Authorities believed that banned organisations operating in interior Sindh, bordering areas adjacent to Balochistan in particular, were gradually joining the ranks of Daesh.

The CTD also planned to establish a ‘research and analysis wing’ at the CTD Headquarter just to assess the threats of banned outfits in the province. Under new counter violent extremism strategy, the forces will also start a youth de-radicalisation programme in prisons across the province. For ‘Cyber Terrorism Monitoring’, the institution will start awareness programmes in educational institutions across the province.

The teams of CTD will also start ‘strict monitoring of madaris/religious groups with sectarian and Salafist tendencies.’ A centre for counterterrorism is being also established at the University of Sindh, officials said. Ten more cases of terrorists, Ashaq Boobi and Asim Capri in particular, were sent to the military courts last month, they added.