CID nabbed the militants involved in target killing of Swat’s anti-Taliban leaders in Karachi

by Zia Ur Rehman

2011-05-23

Central Asia Online

KARACHI – Sindh’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested three suspects belonging to the Abu Mansoor group of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The three were involved in assassinations of “pro-government” Swat residents visiting Karachi, officials said.

Central Asia Online exclusively reported that TTP Swat militants who fled to Karachi after a military operation began in Swat have been assassinating pro-government Swat residents under cover of the targeted killings.

After reports from intelligence agencies and media suggested dozens of Swat anti-Taliban peace committee members had been killed in the past year in Karachi, CID personnel raided Orangi Town’s Sector 10-1/2 under the supervision of Superintendent of Police (SP) Fayyaz Khan May 19, said a CID official.

Police arrested Alamzaib (alias Noor Shah), Hassan Daar (alias Sheena) and Enamur Rehman, Karachi Police Chief Ahmed Mirza said. Hit lists containing names of political leaders and officials from CID Sindh and intelligence agencies were found in their possession, he said.

Police also recovered 20kg of explosives, two hand grenades and other arms, he added.

The arrested militants were associated with TTP Swat’s Abu Mansoor Group in the valley but in Karachi, they were working for the Omer Mufi group of the TTP, he said, adding that the held militants were also involved in robberies and kidnapping the businessmen for ransom to generate funds for the militant outfit, he added.

Alamzaib, in Swat, worked for a TTP local commander Akram aka Mohsin, belonging from Fateh Pur area and after joining the group, the former started to target government and military installations, said a CID official, citing the information obtained upon interrogation at the department.

Alamzaib aka Noor Shah

Following the successful military operation against the TTP in Swat, Alamzaib fled to Karachi, where he joined the TTP’s Omar Mufti and allegedly killed 18 people who were either suspected for providing information on the militants to law enforcement agencies or those who were key member of anti-Taliban peace committees in Swat, the CID official added.

Daar, another held suspect, was also an active member of the TTP and worked for the Adeel, a local commander in Matta area of Swat. Daar was also deputed with the task of targeting military personnel in Swat but due to the military operation, he also fled to Karachi where he targeted Swat’s people residing here who were suspected for giving information to Police, the CID disclosed.

Hassan Daar aka Sheena

Enamur Rehman, the third suspect, was trained for carrying out suicide attacks and was waiting for a directive from Mufi. Rehman, who joined the TTP in 2008 in Swat and worked under the local commander Hamzullah, also moved to Karachi following the military operation against militants in Swat, the CID official told the Central Asia Online.

Enamur Rehman

The three held militants were suspected of being involved in the murders of dozens of anti-Taliban people which include: Fazal Mohammad (a constable of Swat’s special Police Force) in SITE-A, Nasir Khan (A leader of Swat’s anti-Taliban peace committee in Kabal) in Peerabad, Farman Ali in Peerabad, Zahoor Ali in SITE-A, Mohammed Shakirullah Khan in SITE-A, Mohammed Ali in Peerabad and Farooq Ahmed in Momin Abad, along with several others.

The militants hiding in Karachi have been killed many elders of Swat in Karachi who were very helpful to the government during the military operation”, said She Shah, a parliamentarian from Swat valley, told the Central Asia Online.

“Government should also launch a “selective and surgical” operation against the militants who are working in different outfits in Karachi and killing peace committee members there”, Shah said.

“Recent arrests of the Swat’s militants by the CID in Karachi are of significant importance as the held militants were hardcore members of TTP Swat chapter, an official in Swat Police told the Central Asia Online.

Ibn-e-Aqeel aka Khog ans Sher Muhammad aka Yaseen are also key commanders of Swat militants hiding in Karachi who are also amongst the most wanted people in Swat, he said, adding that both are leading a group which mainly targets the anti-Taliban elders of Swat travelling to Karachi for personal and business reasons, he added.

Most of the militants fled from Swat following the military operation to Karachi have joined the ranks of the TTP-linked banned Jihadi outfits especially Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Muhammad and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, in Karachi, he said.

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Karachi targeted killings of Pashtuns tied to militant groups

By Zia Ur Rehman
For CentralAsiaOnline.com
2011-04-01

KARACHI – Tribal-area militants hiding in Karachi have brought their fight to the streets of Karachi, killing pro-government Pashtuns under the guise of targeted killings, Central Asia Online has learned.

“The militants, taking advantage of ongoing ethnic violence in the city, kill their rivals, (and) in most cases, the police consider these killings a result of ethnic violence,” said a senior police official who runs the anti-extremism cell in the city.

“]

Police officers carry the coffin of Fazal Muhammad, a constable of Swat’s Special Police Force, who was killed in Pathan Colony in Karachi last November. Militants have singled out pro-government Pashtuns like him for assassination in Swat and the tribal areas. [Zia Ur Rehman

That concealment makes it difficult for officials to put a number on the militancy-related deaths. But security officials have arrested dozens of hard-core militants from Swat and other tribal areas suspected of involvement in such killings, said a senior police official in Karachi’s SITE Town.

That militants have migrated to Karachi from Swat, tribal areas and elsewhere is nothing new. They began taking refuge there after the government launched military operations in the tribal areas and Swat in 2009. Karachi, with a population of about 18m, provides them sanctuary because about 5m Pashtuns inhabit the city.

In the tribal areas, where the population is sparser, residents had an idea of who was involved in the militancy. In Karachi, the militants shaved their beards, cut their long hair and blended right in, said a leader of Karachi-based Swat Qaumi Ittehad (SQI), requesting anonymity. SQI is an organisation for Swatis living in Karachi.

What is new, however, is that pro-government Pashtuns travelling to Karachi for personal or business reasons are being targeted and killed. Officials explain the disturbing trend by saying the militants are killing Pashtuns in Karachi to silence anti-Taliban voices in the tribal areas.

Dozens of members of peace committees from different parts of the tribal areas have been killed in the past year in Karachi for speaking out against Taliban atrocities in the former “valley of terror,” said Ziauddin Yousafzai, spokesman for the Swat Qaumi Jirga.

The list of Karachi victims with ties to the tribal areas and Swat includes:

Rustam Khan, an Awami National Party (ANP) leader and member of a peace committee in Kanju, killed in Banaras January 2.

Fazal Muhammad, a constable of Swat’s Special Police Force, killed in Pathan Colony November 9.

Nisar Muhammad Khan, an active leader of Swat’s anti-Taliban peace committee of Kabal, shot to death October 28 in Pathan Colony.

Mian Azam Shah, an anti-Taliban leader in Matta, assassinated in Baldia Town October 19.

Abdul Manan – the older brother of Dilawar Khan, who formerly led the Adezai Qaumi lashkar in the suburbs of Peshawar – gunned down in Karachi in January 2009.

Haji Tor Babazai, an anti-Taliban elder of Mohmand Agency, killed in Karachi on September 29.

Accomplices of Maulana Fazlullah, head of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) Swat, were behind the targeted killings of some Swati’s anti-Taliban elders in Karachi, Yousafzai said. The men assassinated by the militants in Karachi were very helpful to the government during military operation, and I believe they have been targeted for this very reason,”, agreed Sher Shah Khan, a parliamentarian from Swat and district general secretary of the ANP.

The killings have engendered fear in Swat, he said.

The militant group involved in the killings of pro-government elders of Swat in Karachi in mainly led by Ibn-e-Aqeel, alias khog, and Sher Muhammad, alias Yaseen, said a Matta local elder who is now in Karachi. They were among the most wanted people in Swat, he added.

Police have arrested dozens of Taliban militants from the tribal areas, said a police official, adding that some of them had suicide jackets and huge quantities of explosives and weapons.

“I personally know a dozen hard-line militants who killed innocent Swati people and burnt their houses have been arrested in Karachi by local police”, said Jamal Nasir Khan, a former Swat district mayor.

Most militants in Karachi are low-profile TTP members. “They hide here, work here as labourers, and some of them perhaps waiting for the right time to settle their scores with their rivals in the city,” said the senior police official involved in fighting extremism.

The militants hiding in Karachi have joined the ranks of banned jihadi organisations, especially Jaish-e-Muhammad, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, he said.

Law enforcement agencies should launch a “selective and surgical” operation in Karachi against militants who have migrated to Karachi, Khan and Yousafzai said.

Indeed, evidence from the spate of recent “targeted killings” has indicated that they have links to the tribal area militancy, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said.

“We have directed law enforcement agencies to launch a crackdown against the militants hiding in Karachi,” Malik said.

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