Five militants of banned sectarian outfit arrested

The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Sindh police on Wednesday claimed to have arrested five suspected militants of a banned sectarian outfit allegedly involved in target killings.

The CTD also claimed to have seized one kalashnikov rifle, four pistols, ammunition and a list of targets. According to CTD officials, the arrests were made during a raid conducted on a tip-off in Golimar. The arrested men, who allegedly belonged to the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), were identified as Kazim Ali Shah, alias Shah Ji, Saqib Akhtar, Obaidur Rehman, alias Zubair, Omair, alias Khalil, and Shahab, alias Chhota, alias Safdar, alias Kashif.

They were allegedly involved in various cases of target killings, murders, attempted murders and other heinous crimes. According to the CTD investigation police, the suspects belonged to the Hafiz Qasim Rasheed group of the LeJ who confessed to their involvement in more than half a dozen target killings. They also admitted that Hafiz Qasim Rasheed and Wasim Barodi used to give them directions from jail.

The suspects also allegedly revealed that four teams of target killers had been activated in Karachi under the supervision of Rasheed and Barodi and tasked with attacking police, security forces and religious personalities. The CTD claimed that they recovered a target list from the suspects.