CTD arrests three LeJ militants for police murders in Karachi

Sindh’s Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on Tuesday claimed to have arrested three militants associated with the banned outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), saying that they had been planning to carry out major sectarian attacks in Karachi.

The arrests of Mirza Omar Farooq Baig (alias Wudood), Syed Zabiullah (alias Taliban) and Fazal Razzaq (alias Razzaq) were disclosed during a news conference at the CTD office in Civil Lines.

The CTD’s Raja Omar Khattab told the media that a special team was constituted following sectarian killings and police murders in the city the previous year and this year.

He said that while investigating these cases, a special CTD team found out that Shaikh Mumtaz (alias Firaun) was the ringleader of this particular LeJ group.

Under-trial prisoners Mumtaz and Ahmed Khan — both suspected hardcore militants associated with the LeJ — had escaped from the anti-terrorism courts’ judicial complex located at the Central Jail Karachi in June 2017.

Khattab said that after hiding in Afghanistan, Mumtaz returned to Karachi and formed a group to carry out target killings in the city, adding that the group was particularly targeting those whom they believed of being informers for the police and those policemen who were soft targets as well as generating funds for the group through robberies.

Sharing the details of recent terrorist activities by the group, the officer said Mumtaz and five of his accomplices — including Mamnoon (alias Sumair), Areeb (alias Bilal) and Farooq (alias Wudood) — on three motorcycles murdered police constables Allah Dino and Ahmed Ali in the Orangi Town police jurisdiction on June 17 this year.

“Areeb and Farooq were identified with the help of CCTV footage obtained from the crime scene. Based on intelligence-based information, the CTD team found out that all the terrorists had escaped to Panjgaur in Balochistan.”

Khattab said the CTD shared their findings with the law enforcement agencies, which conducted a raid in Panjgaur on Quetta Road and killed three terrorists — Mumtaz, Mamnoon and Hunzila (alias Bawali) — while their other accomplices went into hiding in the province.

“The CTD team continued working on their information-sharing network. Finally, they received information about the arrival of the remaining members of this group from Balochistan to Karachi via Hub River Road.”

He said the CTD team conducted snap checking in the area and arrested them while entering Karachi and also recovered arms and ammunition from them. Quoting the arrested suspects, the officer said they had come to Karachi to complete the mission of their ringleader Mumtaz. He also claimed to have recovered a hit list from them.

Sharing other details of their recent target killings, the officer said they were involved in the murders of ASI Rizwan in Orangi Town and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf worker Shafqat and police constable Habibullah in the Iqbal Market area.

The CTD officer said that besides target killings, the arrested suspects have also admitted to being involved in around a dozen cases of robberies in the city’s District West.