‘Two militants involved in sectarian killings’ held by CTD

Sindh’s Counter-Terrorism Department on Tuesday claimed to have arrested two militants affiliated with a banned sectarian outfit.

The CTD said the arrested men were involved in high profile targeted killings of religious scholars and were members of the proscribed Sipah-e-Muhammad's Agha Hassan Group. According to CTD officials, the arrests were made in a raid conducted near Bagh-e-Korangi in Karachi’s Korangi area. The suspects were identified as Qarar Hussain and Kamran Haider.

The suspects had admitted their involvement in high profile cases of targeted killings in the city, said CTD officials. According to the CTD, the arrested men along with their accomplices were involved in the killings of Jamia Binoria's Maulana Yousuf Ludhianvi, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, Mufti Mehmood in Shershah locality, a trader, namely Abdur Razzak, in the year 2001, eight workers of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan on Kashmir Road in 2011, an MMA leader belonging to the Jamat-e-Islami, namely Wasif Aziz, in Malir’s Muhabbat Nagar in 2007, two Muhajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi workers (who were brothers) in Malir’s Khokhrapar in 2014 and several other citizens.

The CTD said the arrested suspects had received training to use arms, ammunition, suicide jackets, improvised explosive devices (IED), vehicular borne IED (VBIED), anti-aircraft gun and counter-surveillance training in a neighbouring country. The CTD said a .30 bore pistol and a 9MM pistol with nine live rounds were found on them.