pkd
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2009
- Messages
- 1,432
- Reaction score
- 0
Seven TTP men arrested with Indian explosives
KARACHI: The city police claimed on Thursday that they had arrested seven more suspected members of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and seized the largest quantity of explosives in recent months from the militants.
A senior official said the arrested men had poured into the city from the South Waziristan agency and were planning to hit key government buildings and installations and senior officials when captured after a brief early morning shoot-out in the Gulistan-i-Jauhar area.
Their plans could have been disastrous if they had succeeded, Waseem Ahmed, the capital city police officer, told a press conference at the Central Police Office. Its a major success in recent months and we hope the interrogation of the suspects would lead to further such captures. The list of their targets suggested that they mainly planned to hit government installations.
A handout given to the reporters elaborated the police action saying that the law-enforcers, acting on a tip-off, cordoned off an isolated area in Gulistan-i-Jauhars Block 10 which triggered shooting from the alleged militants.
The police reacted and after an exchange of fire arrested seven militants Saeed Anwar alias Moulvi, Hazrat Umar alias Ameer Sahib, Hamid Ali alias Hamesh alias Baatu, Khan Wali, Khan Alam, Saifur Rehman and Karamat Khan associated with the Hakeemullah Meshud group, it said.
It also listed the ammunition seized from the arrested men, which included 300 kilograms of highly explosives RDX, 50 kilograms of C4, two prepared jackets for suicide blasts carrying 28 kilos of C4 explosive, five Kalashnikovs, seven hand-grenades, three rockets and other material used for destroying heavy and concrete structures.
As some of the seized explosives were Indian- and Russian-made, the city police chief said that the involvement of a foreign hand in the overall terrorist planning and activities could not be ruled out, adding that it was too early to reach a conclusion.
The arrested persons are involved in a foiled attack on the Keamari oil terminal and are close aide of the Karachi chief of the TTP, who was arrested last month with his other accomplices, CCPO Ahmed said. He said one of the arrested TTP men Hamid Ali alias Hamesh alias Baatu was prepared as a suicide bomber and the group had almost planned to use an explosives-laden mini-truck for that purpose.
When questioned about the free movement of the alleged militants in the city assembling such quantities of explosives, he said Karachi was such a big city that it could not be controlled with conventional policing.
We need to develop policing under modern technology, and efforts are being made on these lines. But still we manage to give our 100 per cent and achieved major success with the given resources, said the city police chief.
Later, answering a query, DIG (East) Abdul Khaliq Sheikh ruled out the impression that the frequent arrests of TTP members and release of most alleged militants by courts put a question mark over the police claims, and that the exercise of the law-enforcers seemed more to seek the limelight than challenge the real threat.
It is a baseless assumption, he said. The multiple arrests of militants in the city reflected the polices relentless efforts.
The release of suspects by courts is altogether a different matter, which includes several technical grounds that sometimes create doubts and the accused get its benefit.
KARACHI: The city police claimed on Thursday that they had arrested seven more suspected members of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and seized the largest quantity of explosives in recent months from the militants.
A senior official said the arrested men had poured into the city from the South Waziristan agency and were planning to hit key government buildings and installations and senior officials when captured after a brief early morning shoot-out in the Gulistan-i-Jauhar area.
Their plans could have been disastrous if they had succeeded, Waseem Ahmed, the capital city police officer, told a press conference at the Central Police Office. Its a major success in recent months and we hope the interrogation of the suspects would lead to further such captures. The list of their targets suggested that they mainly planned to hit government installations.
A handout given to the reporters elaborated the police action saying that the law-enforcers, acting on a tip-off, cordoned off an isolated area in Gulistan-i-Jauhars Block 10 which triggered shooting from the alleged militants.
The police reacted and after an exchange of fire arrested seven militants Saeed Anwar alias Moulvi, Hazrat Umar alias Ameer Sahib, Hamid Ali alias Hamesh alias Baatu, Khan Wali, Khan Alam, Saifur Rehman and Karamat Khan associated with the Hakeemullah Meshud group, it said.
It also listed the ammunition seized from the arrested men, which included 300 kilograms of highly explosives RDX, 50 kilograms of C4, two prepared jackets for suicide blasts carrying 28 kilos of C4 explosive, five Kalashnikovs, seven hand-grenades, three rockets and other material used for destroying heavy and concrete structures.
As some of the seized explosives were Indian- and Russian-made, the city police chief said that the involvement of a foreign hand in the overall terrorist planning and activities could not be ruled out, adding that it was too early to reach a conclusion.
The arrested persons are involved in a foiled attack on the Keamari oil terminal and are close aide of the Karachi chief of the TTP, who was arrested last month with his other accomplices, CCPO Ahmed said. He said one of the arrested TTP men Hamid Ali alias Hamesh alias Baatu was prepared as a suicide bomber and the group had almost planned to use an explosives-laden mini-truck for that purpose.
When questioned about the free movement of the alleged militants in the city assembling such quantities of explosives, he said Karachi was such a big city that it could not be controlled with conventional policing.
We need to develop policing under modern technology, and efforts are being made on these lines. But still we manage to give our 100 per cent and achieved major success with the given resources, said the city police chief.
Later, answering a query, DIG (East) Abdul Khaliq Sheikh ruled out the impression that the frequent arrests of TTP members and release of most alleged militants by courts put a question mark over the police claims, and that the exercise of the law-enforcers seemed more to seek the limelight than challenge the real threat.
It is a baseless assumption, he said. The multiple arrests of militants in the city reflected the polices relentless efforts.
The release of suspects by courts is altogether a different matter, which includes several technical grounds that sometimes create doubts and the accused get its benefit.
