Intelligence agencies have arrested five men, including a former Special Services Group (SSG) commando of Pakistan Navy and his younger brother, suspected of providing maps of Pakistan Naval Station (PNS) Mehran aviation base to the militants who attacked it on May 22.
About 10 security personnel, assisted by Elite Force officials, arrested the suspects from a building opposite the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited offices on Gurumangat Road around noon on Friday, and took them to an undisclosed location. Intelligence agencies had raided the compound located on the first floor of a two-storey building, storming it to arrest the five suspects: Kamran Malik, a former SSG commando of Pakistan Navy, his brother Zaman Malik and three other unidentified men. The suspects were handcuffed and bundled into police vehicles, all except Zaman, who was simply taken along without being handcuffed since he was identified as Kamran’s brother. Sources said Kamran and his three unidentified “friends” were arrested because he was allegedly in regular contact with Qari Qaiser, another suspect of the PNS Mehran attack, who was arrested by the agencies a few days ago from the Satiana area of Faisalabad. Sources said Kamran was arrested on charges of providing maps of PNS Mehran to the attackers. They said further that interrogation of the suspects was underway, and Kamran’s cell phone had been taken into custody and its records were being checked in order to trace his connections and links. Lahore police chief Ahmed Raza Tahir told Pakistan Today that intelligence agencies had requested a contingent of the Elite Force but had not disclosed the purpose of the raid. Reportedly, Kamran Ahmed had joined the army in 1993 and later trained as part of the elite SSG. He also served at PNS Iqbal until 1997 and was later transferred to PNS Mehran, where he served until 2003. He was later court-martialed for arguing with his senior. During the court-martial, Navy officials also declared him “mentally challenged”. Reportedly, intelligence agencies also interrogated Kamran in 2008 when unidentified assailants attacked the Navy War College on The Mall.
