Terrorists spent Rs1m on Chinese consulate attack

The suspected facilitators of the Chinese consulate attack have revealed that as much as one million rupees was spent for carrying out the consulate attack, The News learnt on Saturday.

A joint investigation team (JIT) was constituted on January 19 to interrogate the five suspects arrested in connection with the Chinese consulate attack. The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) SSP headed the JIT which comprised officials representing the Rangers, CTD, Special Branch and intelligence agencies.

Three terrorists had tried to storm the Chinese Consulate General in Karachi on the morning of November 23, 2018. However, they were intercepted by law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in a timely manner and were killed before they could enter the building.

Two policemen and two visa applicants – a man and his son – were also killed in the terrorist attack.

Shortly after the attack, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed the responsibility of the attack via social media. The attackers had planned to fix the party’s flag on the consulate building.

Sources in the JIT informed The News that an amount of around Rs1 million was spent to facilitate and carry out the attack. They added that that the terrorists’ commander was a man named Amanullah who had also financed the attack. He was later killed in an attack in Afghanistan.

Various transactions were made on different dates from the account of Amanullah in Quetta and other locations to help carry out the attack, the JIT sources disclosed.

“Amanullah used to provide them [terrorists] funds through bank transactions and by hand,” said CTD official Mazhar Mashwani who was a part of the JIT. “They had been planning for the attack since August and during the four months [between August and November], they spent around Rs1 million for the transportation, logistic support, food and other areas.”

The five suspected facilitators involved in the terrorist attack were arrested in Karachi by law enforcement agencies (LEAs) on January 11. Their arrests were revealed to media persons during a news conference held by Karachi Additional IG Dr Amir Shaikh who claimed that the BLA had carried out the terrorist attack with support from India and its plot was hatched up in Afghanistan.

Dr Shaikh also claimed that a man, Aslam, alias Achhu, was the mastermind of the attack, the purpose of which was to damage Pak-China relations.

The arrested suspects were identified as Abdul Latif, Hasnain, Arif, Hashim and Aslam. They were apprehended during a joint raid conducted by the Malir police, Special Security Unit of the police and intelligence agencies in Sadiq Baloch Goth in Taiser Town. The LEAs also claimed to have seized arms, hand grenades, rockets, explosive material and ammunition from their possession.

Two of the arrested suspects have also confessed to their crime in court while the remaining three were being interrogated until Saturday when there were sent to jail by an anti-terrorism court.