PESHAWAR: An alleged terrorist arrested during a recent operation in the Hayatabad locality here has confessed before the court that he and his accomplices were involved in the attack on a Peshawar High Court judge and were planning to target two Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) provincial ministers.
The police arrested the alleged terrorist, Yasir Shams alias Muzamil alias Chattay, during the action by the police and security forces against the terrorists on April 16 at the posh Hayatabad town. Five terrorists were killed in the exchange of fire. An assistant sub-inspector of police, Qamar Alam, and a Pakistan Army soldier, Lance Naik Zafar Iqbal, were martyred.
Yasir Shams is an engineering university student working as a computer operator at a private firm. His family hails from Dargai town in Malakand district.
In his two page confessional statement submitted in the court of Senior Civil Judge (Judicial), Peshawar, Nasrullah, under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), the accused Yasir Shams stated that his father was the principal of the F.G Junior School, R.A Bazaar in Peshawar Cantonment.
“I have four childhood friends Amjad, Irfan, Saeed and Feroz Shah. I knew Murad and Tariq as they were Amjad’s friends. Tariq, Murad, Amjad, Irfan, Saeed and Feroz Shah all were active members of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP),” Yasir Shams stated. He confessed that he was present with his accomplices when they were planning at night to kill Justice Muhammad Ayub for giving the verdict to acquit Dr Shakil Afridi so that the latter could leave for the United States.
Interestingly, the PHC division bench of which Justice Muhammad Ayub was a member had restrained the government from handing over Dr Shakil Afridi to another state instead of acquitting him. The terrorists were obviously misguided about the court decision as they were wrongly blamed the judge for acquitting Dr Shakil Afridi, who has blamed for carrying out a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad to track down the al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.
In his confessional statement, Yasir Shams stated that on the day of the incident, his three accomplices Tariq, Murad and Feroz Shah went on motorcycle to target the judge. He said Murad was carrying a machinegun while Tariq and Feroz Shah had pistols. “I was sitting on a motorcycle with Irfan,” he added.
Yasir Shams stated that after indiscriminately firing at the car of the judge, they easily escaped in a car and on a motorcycle to Phase 7 of Hayatabad. He confessed that he know about the plan to kill Justice Muhammad Ayub and had accompanied the group to accomplish the task. About the second incident, Yasir Shams admitted before the court in his confessional statement that they had planned to target two important provincial ministers, Shahram Khan Tarakai and Muhammad Atif Khan belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) as they had been invited to a function of the Insaf Student Federation (ISF) at Bagh-e-Naran in Hayatabad. He said they had prepared a young Afghan boy for carrying out suicide attack at the ISF meeting in Hayatabad. However, he added that the suicide bomber riding an explosives-laden motorcycle collided with a car on the way to Bagh-e-Naran and thus he failed to reach the target. “We all then went to the bungalow in Hayatabad Phase-7 where the security operation against us was carried out later. We all were angry for failing to hit the target at the ISF meeting,” he added.
“I have made a big mistake. I am ashamed for my acts. Oh, God forgive me,” are the concluding remarks made by Yasir Shams in his confessional statement.The court handed over the accused to the police after recording his confessional statement in the court amid tight security.
He was charged at Counter Terrorism Department Police Station under sections 302,324, 353, 427, 120-B of PPC, 15-AA, 3, 4 and 5 ESA and section 7 of Anti- Terrorism Act (ATA), 11 (N) and 21 (i) ATA.
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