The widow of a slain Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant has confessed involvement in several terrorist attacks in the city, including the Mehran Base attack and the bombings at Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine, Crime Investigation Department (CID) headquarters and residence of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Chaudhry Aslam. According to the Joint Investigation Report (JIT) of Sabiha Shahid, wife of Shahid Khan alias Qari Shahid, the woman was also involved in providing explosives for an attack inside the University of Karachi (KU) campus.
Qari Shahid was among the three kidnappers, associated with the banned militant outfit, killed on December 5 in an encounter with police in Allah Wala Town, Korangi. In the joint raid by Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) and Capital Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), an abducted industrialist, Riaz Chinoy, was recovered. The two other slain militants were identified as Qari Amir and Moosa, while Shahid was stated to be the ‘ameer (in-charge)’ of Punjabi Taliban’s Karachi unit. Sabiha was arrested by the law enforcement agencies from the spot and later produced in an anti-terrorism court (ATC), which remanded her into police custody for five days. On Wednesday, the police produced the woman before the ATC again, after completing the interrogation.
Sources in the AVCC told Pakistan Today that the Qari Shahid group had provided logistical support to militants who attacked PNS Mehran in May – the 16-hour siege had left at least 11 soldiers dead and several warplanes destroyed.
“We carried out attacks on the Mehran Base, shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi, CID head office and at the house of CID SSP Aslam,” the militant’s widow told the investigators.
In the JIT, she revealed that Qari Shahid was also involved in the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.
Six policemen and two civilians were killed on March 3, 2009 when a bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers was attacked by a dozen gunmen near the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. The cricketers were on way to play on the third day of the second Test against the Pakistani cricket team. Six members of the Sri Lankan cricket team were also injured.
“[Shahid] was a member of the team that attacked the Sri Lankan cricketers and fled the scene along with other assailants,” Sabiha said.
Qari Shahid’s widow also admitted to providing the explosive device to the TTP activists, who planted the bomb near the main cafeteria inside the KU.
The low-intensity blast had left at least three people injured.
Three TTP activists – also KU students – identified as Abdul Hafeez, Fayz Ali and Muhammad Omer alias Qari Omer were arrested from the varsity, who later confessed during interrogation that their leader was Qari Shahid.
The sources said that Sabiha also physically participated in all the terrorist activities along with other terrorists. “She is an expert in manufacturing explosive devices and also using weapons, and got her training in Waziristan,” they added.
They said that Sabiha hails from Rajan Pur in southwestern Punjab and got married to Qari Shahid around two years ago. She is the mother of a five-month-old child.
