After a high-level attack targeting a military van in Karachi, it seems that outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban isn’t done yet. Walk chalking has begun emerging in the city, which announces TTP’s return to Karachi, and labels security officers ‘Kafirs’, it has been learnt.
The Sindh Rangers had issued details of the two-year long targeted operation on September 5 in which the force claimed that it arrested 10,353 suspects in 5,795 raids. The federal paramilitary force said that it detained 826 terrorists, 334 target killers and 296 extortionists during the operation.
The paramilitary force said 364 terrorists associated with various banned organisations – including al Qaeda, different factions of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi – were also killed in gunfights with the force. Rangers claimed that 7,312 weapons and 348,978 cartridges have been seized in the past two years.
On December 01, terrorists targeted and killed two Military Police (MP) personnel at MA Jinnah Road while four more officers were gunned down by militants during an attack in the Baladia Town vicinity. Eight months before this attack, a suicide bomber rammed his two-wheeler into a Rangers van in North Nazimabad, leaving two Rangers personnel and a passerby couple dead.
During their recent activities in the city, militants gave a hint about their future target i.e. the enforcers of law. A wall-chalking on a pillar of the Lyari Expressway carries the words ‘police kafir.’
The walk chalking, which was created three months ago, seems more like a premonition. During this period, terrorists have killed police officers, traffic police officers, paramilitary Rangers, and members of the Pakistan Army.
THE WAR ON LAW ENFORCERS:
Murders of police officers increased in the city after the recovery of seven dead bodies that belonged to militants in 2014. TTP Swat group chief Yousuf Faizullah was among the lot found in the Manghopir area of MPR Colony on June 02, 2014. Former West DIG Irfan Baloch had at the time confirmed the killing of the TTP Swat group commander, along with his six aides. He said that TTP Swat group and TTP Mehsud splinter groups had joined hands to avenge the death of Yousuf Faizullah by waging war against law enforcers.
Before this incident, Azizullah alias Shamzai, a local commander of TTP in Karachi, declared law enforcers ‘Kafirs’. Shamzai believed that there was no need to go to Afghanistan for jihad, as the Taliban could wage jihad inside Pakistan to earn sawab (spiritual reward) by killing those who are involved in implementing a ‘Kafir’ system in the country.
This revelation was made by Shamzai’s brother-in-law Abdullah alias Mukhtar and Hamid Khan alias Pehalwan, who also claimed that they had killed 16 policemen and four police informers in SITE Town alone, after their arrest was made by Rangers from Mochko.
Anti-terror cop Rao Anwar believes that al Qaeda in Indian Sub-Continent (AQIS) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) were involved in the recent killings of law enforcers. He said that MQM started the trend of murdering police officers after the end of the 1992 Karachi operation.
After the TTP-Swati group started targeting policemen in 2014 to avenge the death of its top leadership, killing policemen became a norm for militants of every group, including Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. There is some evidence to suggest that AQIS’ hands are involved in some of the recent killings.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Sindh Rangers spokesman Major Sibtain said that 33 personnel of the federal force have embraced martyrdom in peacekeeping missions in Karachi since September 05, 2013. However, when he was asked about the recent terrorist activities and wall-chalking, he requested that the questions be sent to him through email. No response was received by the time this report was sent to press.
ISPR Spokesman Major Sadaqat refused to comment on the issue.