Jailbreak by LEJ hitmen: Threat alert issued as CTD fears fresh spate of sectarian killings

Top counterterrorism officials of the Sindh police believe that the jailbreak by two notorious terrorists associated with the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s (LeJ) Naeem Bukhari group may help scattered militants to regroup and restart sectarian killings in Karachi, The News has learnt.

The suspected hitmen — Shaikh Mohammad Mumtaz alias Firaun and Mohammad Ahmed Khan alias Munna, who belong to the Qasim Rasheed group of the Naeem Bukhari-led LeJ – broke out of the high-security Central Jail Karachi earlier this week.

The two had been arrested by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) in 2013 for their alleged involvement in over 60 murders, mostly on sectarian grounds.

According to the officials, Mumtaz has the ability to put together the Naeem Bukhari group, which was almost neutralised after the death of Bukhari, who was the mastermind of a number of sectarian attacks in the country, particularly Karachi.

“There was a possibility that the escaped LeJ terrorists may regroup Naeem Bukhari’s activists to start sectarian killings in the city,” said Additional Inspector General (AIG) Dr Sanaullah Abbasi of the CTD.

“Keeping this possibility in view, we have issued a threat alert on Friday and warned the law enforcement agencies that sectarian killings may be paced up in the days to come,” he added.

Law enforcers investigating the shocking jailbreak said Firon had a team to execute sectarian killings and was in contact with other teams of hitmen of the group.

The investigation has established that it is nearly impossible to cut the iron rods of the under-trial suspects’ cell by using a manual cutter.

Investigators said the manual iron cutter could just help in cutting barbed wires and one was used by the Karachi’s Mehran Base attackers in 2011. They said the iron rods of such a heavy gauge could be cut by using only an electronic cutter, and bringing one into the prison’s Judicial Complex was not possible. 

Responding to a question, Sindh Prisons Inspector General Nusrat Hussain Mangan also said it was almost impossible to cut through the cell’s iron rods with a manual cutter. “We ruled out the cutting of the cell’s rods with the manual cutter, and we are looking into this jailbreak from other angles,” he added.

CTD AIG Abbasi, who visited the central prison in connection with the probe, said it was very difficult to cut the iron rods of such a heavy gauge with a manual cutter.

He said there was a big question mark on the shifting of two under- trial terrorists to the Judicial Complex, where no hearing was to take place.

Abbasi hinted that the scope of the investigation would be widened to outside the prison to ascertain the names of people involved in the unnecessary shifting of the LeJ terrorists to the Judicial Complex.

Dearth of prison staff

The investigation has shown that there is a dearth of staff in the central prison housing wanted terrorists.

As many as 180 positions of central prison staff are said to have been lying vacant for the past many years. The arrests of 12 cops following  the jailbreak have compound the problem.

IG Prisons Nusrat Mangan, when contacted, confirmed that 180 positions had been lying vacant in the jail. However, he said, the suspended cops had been replaced immediately with junior staffers to run the prison affairs effectively.