Sixteen Taliban terrorists arrested in pre-dawn raids

Sindh’s counterterrorism officials and Rangers soldiers arrested 16 terrorists associated with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) with huge caches of weapons and explosives in pre-dawn raids on Friday.

A spokesman for the Rangers said that a few days ago the paramilitary force and the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) had gunned down three TTP terrorists in a locality of Baldia Town.

Sharing their respective intelligence reports, the Rangers and the CTD planned and conducted another joint raid in Baldia Town’s Qaimkhani Colony. However, many terrorists managed to escape during the raid.

Expanding their intelligence networks and employing technical assistance, the Rangers and the CTD were able to gather some more authentic leads that suggested the fleeing terrorists had holed up in Mominabad and the Ganna Mandi area of Sohrab Goth.

In the wee hours of Friday, the Rangers’ soldiers and the CTD’s officials carried out raids in Mominabad and Sohrab Goth. They were met with armed resistance but they retaliated and arrested 16 TTP terrorists.

The arrested terrorists were later identified as Rafiullah Arif, alias Qari; Abdul Majid, alias Mufti; Mohammad Younis, alias Anas, alias Yousuf Saleem; Mohammad Razzaq, alias Shakeel Dada; Shamsul Ahad, alias Maulvi; Umer Khaliq, alias Hussain; Mohammad Junaid, alias Abdul Manan; Junaid Ahmed; Khan Bahadur; Abdul Ghafoor, alias Abu Hurairah; Mohammad Zainul Abideen, alias Siddique, alias Saifullah; Saifullah, alias Saifu; Mohammad Asif, alias Doctor, alias Langrha; Sanaullah, alias Sana; Abdul Aziz, alias Kamran; and Umar Ali Zargarh.

The Rangers spokesman said the arrested terrorists were associates of the three terrorists killed earlier and had been working under their command, adding that all of them were associated with the TTP’s Ustad Aslam group.

During the search of their hideouts, the officials found four suicide jackets, 12 blockbuster bombs, 10 hand grenades, 40 kilograms of explosives, two gallons of hydrogen peroxide, 10 Kalashnikovs, seven pistols, 1,250 bullets and 40 metres of detonating cord. All of the seized items were handed over to the CTD.

The spokesman said the terrorists had been planning to carry out some major terrorism activities in the coming days, adding that the officials had also recovered a list naming targets for their future attacks.

The Rangers official said the identities of the killed terrorists had also been confirmed: Abdul Karim Swati, alias Mufti; Mohammad Yousuf, alias Shahzad, alias Noman Burmi; and Mohammad Ahmed, alias Maulvi Abdullah.

Swati had joined the TTP in 2009 and was trained for terrorist activities in Afghanistan. He belonged to the Ustad Aslam group working under the command of Bilal Mansoor, who is also the commander of the terrorists killed in a shoot-out in Urdu Bazaar last April. He was also directly involved in the kidnapping for ransom of Sardar Asad Tareen, and was the main facilitator in Karachi for Mansoor.

Yousuf had joined the TTP in 2014 and gone to Afghanistan for being trained in terrorism. He was involved in the IED blast in Orangi Town in 2015 as well as attacks on police mobiles. Ahmed had joined the TTP in 2016 and was trained in Afghanistan to carry out a suicide attack.