KARACHI: Security agencies have tightened the noose around the terrorist group Ansarul Shariah which was alleged to be involved in assassination bid of Opposition Leader in Sindh Assembly Khawaja Izharul Hassan in Karachi, said Director General Rangers Sindh Major General Muhammad Saeed on Saturday.
In an exclusive interview with ARY News, he gave profound details of all the developments made so far to bust the terrorist group.
He said eight terrorists of the Karachi-based group, that consists of 10 to 12 members, were identified. One of them was arrested and another was killed soon after the assassination bid of Izhar Hassan which claimed lives of a security guard and a passer-by.
“It is an ongoing operation and a lot of information that we have obtained cannot be shared now as one of the terrorists had fled from his house in the vicinity of house of Abdul Kareem Saroush Siddiqui, the key suspect, when news of a raid at the latter’s house was run on electronic media,” he said.
The DG Rangers Sindh said once the operation would be completed, all its investigation process, evidences and details of all the arrested culprits would be shared with public in a joint comprehensive press conference.
He said since they had limited technical resources, therefore, they had to carry out joint investigation along other security and intelligence agencies.
“Ansarul Sharia launched killing in Karachi earlier this year and their first claim of a murder was of martyred colonel Nagi on Shahra-e-Faisal in Saddar. After that all their focus of killings was on police,” he said.
They killed police officers in New Town, SITE area, they even killed two police officials in misunderstanding for another target on Superhighway and two security guards were martyred outside FBR office in Karachi, he said.
Muhammad Saeed said it was not Ansarul Shariah but another group that killed three police officials in Korangi and one traffic policeman on Abul Hassan Asfahani Road. He said Ansarul Shariah commanders had also claimed some crimes which they did not commit.
Giving credentials of the terrorists, he said six to eight people affiliated with the group had yet been identified.
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“The two commanders who laid foundation of the group belonged to Al Qaeda and after dissociating with Al Qaeda they formed this new group.
“Three of them have done Masters in Applied Physics, three have completed Engineering degree programs, one has done Chartered Accountant and another one has done MBA,” he said.
He said their information was obtained through interrogation from their relatives, friends and peers.
The DG Rangers Sindh said hunt for the other group members was underway.
‘Parents, teachers should keep an eye on children’
To a query, he said they did not belong to one institution in the first place. The DG Rangers also shunned the notion that the intelligence and security agencies have sought data or character certificate of the students of Karachi University or any other varsity.
“I don’t think if varsities have any role in propagating terrorism. The most concerning thing is that parents of only two terrorists had some intuition what their children were doing while all the others were unaware,” he lamented.
He said parents should be watchful of activities of their children, while teachers of the educational institutions should keep an eye on the pupils and identify what was motivating them towards extremism.
