The paramilitary Rangers and police on Sunday claimed to have arrested at least 24 suspects, including ‘militants’ belonging to banned outfits, in raids across the metropolis.
A senior police official told media that police’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) arrested four suspected militants from Korangi Industrial Area.
The CTD claims that the suspects, Mohammed Shahid alias Zubair, Mohammed Ali, Manzoor Ahmed and Usman Ghani alias Baba, belonged to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the sectarian terror group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
CTD SSP Usman Bajwa claimed that the suspects were involved in a number of terrorist activities including sectarian killings and the 2001 bomb attack on a gambling den in Ghas Mandi area.
The 2011 blast at the largest gambling club in Ghas Mandi area of Lyari town had claimed lives of at least 18 people and injured several others.
Three women linked to Al-Qaeda, Da’ish arrested
Separately, three women, Tehmeena, Uzma and Seema, were apprehended for links with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) in raids.
It has also been confirmed that the women were in contact with terrorists and facilitators of the Safoora incident. According to reports, the arrested women had links with Al-Qaeda as far back as 1996. The women were running two educational institutes in the city. Arrested suspect Seema had provided workers of outlawed organisations with Rs. 500,000 after the Safoora incident.
The arrested women also played a significant part in hiding the operatives of these banned organisations. These female facilitators had even setup a network in the city. The network is being run by wives of the Safoora incident suspects.
The report said that the wife of Khalid Yousaf, who was arrested early Saturday, is running an ‘educational institute’, which does not have an office. However, she has a network of more than 20 women from wealthy families.
These women brainwash young girls, provide funds for IS and arrange wives for the IS terrorists. The wife of Khalid Yousaf also distributes a USB stick containing videos of IS terrorists in order to brainwash young girls, the report added.