Terrorists infiltrating Karachi’s private firms

Karachi
Several operatives of terrorist organisations are working at private firms In Karachi including security companies, banks and multinational companies, a senior police official told The News on Sunday.
Counter-terrorism department Incharge Raja Umer Khattab told The News that AQIS, the Jundullah and other groups were more active in Karachi than the Taliban these days.
“The problem is that these terrorists don’t exactly look like our perceived image of them,” he pointed out. “They look like any ordinary citizen and working in private firms as we saw in the case of the men arrested for the Safoora Goth bus attack.”
The official said earlier terrorists escaped to Waziristan after carrying out attacks, but now they preferred to hide in densely-populated neighbourhoods in the city where they were hard to detect.
“Even if they leave the city, they head to the areas bordering Afghanistan, especially Chaman, where the network of these terrorist outfits is primarily located,” he added.
“We are working on dismantling their network as we did with the Taliban. So far we aren’t releasing pictures and sketches of wanted terrorists to the media but will soon start that so that it is easier to apprehend them with the help of the public.”
During interrogation, some recently arrested terrorists affiliated with Taliban factions including the Fazlullah group, Al-Qaeda Indian Subcontinent, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami revealed that their outfits had established a large network in Karachi, and their were also being aided by countries hostile to Pakistan.
A police investigation officer said most of these arrested men were Afghans and trained in South Waziristan by the Fazlullah group.
The arrested men further told the interrogators that the operatives of the Fazalullah group kidnapped people in Waziristan and then forced their relatives living in Karachi to pay them money and support their cause or else their loved-ones would be killed.
These terrorist groups have also set up training camps in the areas adjoining bordering Afghanistan as well in Tank and Azam Wersick areas of Waziristan.
At these camps, the new recruits are trained to prepare explosive devices and suicide jackets, carry out bomb blasts, and use advanced weapons including sniper guns.
Many of these men are then sent to Karachi were they blend into the society working at private firms until the time their services were required.
Others start working at security companies, banks or money exchange firms. They then go on to rob these places after they have gathered enough information about them. Usually, a rented vehicle is used for committing these heists so that they cannot be traced.
The militants are also involved in kidnappings for ransom and extorting traders and industrialists on the outskirts of the city.These terrorists also gather information about the number plates of government vehicles so that they can be used if needed.
In many of their terrorist activities, they use police uniforms so that they can easily escape and create confusion too.
Many areas of the West district including Mohammad Khan Colony, Ittehad Town, Banaras Colony, Zia Colony in Orangi Town, Frontier Colony, Hazara Colony and some areas of Mominabad have a strong militant presence.
Hiring them young
The officer maintained that terrorist outfits including AQIS hired young men from different parts of the country, mostly from Karachi, aged between 18 and 25 years as it was easier to brainwash them and prepare them for deadly attacks.
In a recent example, the suspects arrested in the recent Safoora Goth bus attack case are all young graduates.
Most Taliban shelters, added the officer, are located in Sohrab Goth, Afghan Basti and other areas on the city’s outskirts.
Sources said Taliban terrorists who had escaped from Karachi to Waziristan have returned following the military operation in the tribal areas after entering Chaman in Balochistan from Afghanistan.
They added that these terrorists were in small groups and included would-be suicide bombers. The mission of these terrorists is to attack important installations in Karachi in retaliation to the military operation Zarb-e-Azb.