Karachi: Same guns used in SITE and Dhoraji attacks on policemen

The Karachi police chief told The News on Saturday that the terror outfit behind Friday’s SITE area attack on policemen was also involved in last month’s Dhoraji assault on law enforcers.

Addl IGP Mushtaq Mehar said the forensic division of the Sindh police had prepared its report regarding Friday’s attack, adding that the bullet trajectory of the spent shells matched with the trajectory of the May 21 assault on a police van in Dhoraji.

“On the basis of the forensic division’s report, we can say the terrorists used the same weapons in the SITE area and Dhoraji attacks. There is a possibility that both the assaults were carried out by the same organisation.”

Meanwhile, a Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) official told The News that the Jamaatul Ansar al Sharia, a new terrorist organisation that claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack, was hitherto not equipped to carry out major terror attacks. “The modus operandi in Friday’s attack suggests that the Jamaat did not have its own trained manpower so it recruited disgruntled militants of other terrorist organisations to carry out target killings of law enforcers,” said Raja Umer Khattab, chief of the CTD’s Transnational Terrorism Intelligence Group. “The attackers targeted the heads of the policemen, the same way the militants of the Islamic State and al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent have done in the recent past.”

Khattab said investigation into the recent activities of the Jamaat suggested that “it has three to five militants. With this limited manpower, they can only commit target killings as they are not equipped for major terror attacks”.

He said the SITE area attack was the fourth such assault by the Jamaat in Karachi since its inception. At least seven policemen were shot dead and three others injured in different attacks by the organisation since April.

In the first week the Jamaat gunned down a retired army colonel, Tahir Zia, in his car near the Baloch Colony bridge. Two assailants on a motorbike rode up to his vehicle and one of them shot him with a 9mm pistol.

The next week the organisation killed a police intelligence officer in Manghopir’s Garam Chashma area. Two motorcyclists arrived on the scene, confirmed the identity of Fareed Khan and one of them shot him in the head.

Last month two policemen were killed and three others injured when two assailants attacked a police van in the Dhoraji locality. The previous night assailants gunned down four policemen deployed for security duty in the SITE area.

A case of Friday’s attack was registered at the CTD’s police station on the complaint of Sub-Inspector Muhammad Ashraf. The FIR No 90/17 was registered under Section 302/34 and Section 7 of the anti-terrorism act. Following the registration of the case, the CTD has formed teams to investigate into the assault. The department claimed to have arrested four suspects after conducting raids in Orangi Town and Baldia Town, and shifted them to an undisclosed location for interrogation.

Funeral prayers

The funeral prayers for the slain policemen were offered at the Police Headquarters, Garden, on Saturday, adds an APP report.

A statement said the funeral prayers were offered by provincial minister Manzoor Wassan, Sindh Rangers Director General Maj-Gen Muhammad Saeed, Inspector General of Police AD Khowaja, senior police officials and residents of the area.

A contingent of the police presented the “Shaheed Salam”. Floral wreaths were also laid on the caskets of the slain cops.

Sindh police chief Khowaja offered condolences to the family members of the slain policemen. He also paid tributes to the law enforcers who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty.

He said that such cowardly acts of the terrorists could not lower the morale of the police force, and the sacrifices of the policemen would not go in vain. He added that the nefarious designs of the terrorists would be frustrated.

The IGP announced a sum of Rs5 million each for the legal heirs of the slain cops, a monthly salary until attaining the age of retirement and other incentives in accordance with the rules.