TTP Mufti Shakir group’s Karachi chief gunned down by CTD

Sindh’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on Tuesday claimed to have gunned down two terrorists who belonged to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) Mufti Shakir group.

Abdul Jabbar and his associate, Daniyal, were shot and injured during a shootout that ensued in the city’s Manghopir area during the early hours of Tuesday, said SSP Omer Shahid Hamid, the CTD intelligence wing chief.

The injured were moved to hospital where doctors pronounced them dead on arrival, he said. The CTD official said he was present in the area along with his team as he had been tipped off that a group of TTP terrorists coming from Balochistan would enter the city through Manghopir.

He said two other TTP terrorists, who belonged to the same terrorism group, had also told the CTD during interrogation that their commander, Mufti Shakir, had recruited notorious terrorist Abdul Jabbar alias Saleem alias Leghari as the new chief for the proscribed organisation’s city chapter.

Shakir was also providing suicide jackets and bombers to his accomplices, SSP Hamid said. The two terrorists had also disclosed that Jabbar had close links with the Afghan Intelligence Agency NDS, he said, adding that Jabbar had earlier come from Balochistan to Karachi for carrying out attacks on jamaatkhanas, imambargahs, shrines, police training centres and other installations.

The CTD launched a hunt to nab Jabbar, and on Tuesday morning the investigation wing was tipped off about his movement from Balochistan to Karachi. While the CTD team was carrying out snap-checking in the Manghopir area, a vehicle tried to speed away when the driver was signalled to halt.

The terrorists opened fire on officers in a bid to flee the spot and the CTD team retaliated and injured two criminals – Jabbar and Daniyal— while others managed to make a getaway.

After confirmation of their deaths in hospital, said the CTD official, two pistols found on them were sent to the Sindh Police Forensic Division, which confirmed after an examination that the weapons were used in the target killing of Sub-Inspector Riaz in the city’s Saeedabad area in 2015.

He added that Jabbar was involved in various terrorist activities and he had links with multiple outlawed organisations, including the Tehreek-e-Imarat Islamia Afghanistan (TIIA). SSP Hamid said absconding terrorists Mufti Shakir was also associated and in contact with the TIIA and the CTD had sealed a madrasa owned by Shakir.

Earlier, he said, the CTD had also killed some terrorists in Keamari who were planning to attack important places and installations while operating under the command of Jabbar.

SSP Hamid said the terrorists arrested earlier had disclosed that they were planning an attack on an the Ismaili jamaatkhana in Karimabad, adding that last year their commander had convened a meeting at Madni Masjid near Ayesha Manzil and carried out recce of the jamaatkhana.

He said the gathered information was sent to Afghanistan, where the jamaatkhana was approved as a target, adding that it was decided that the attack would be jointly executed by the TIIA and the TTP’s Mufti Shakir group. The CTD official said the arms, ammunitions and explosives were to be arranged by Shakir, while three suicide bombers were to be provided by the TIIA.