Online arms dealers’ gang busted in Karachi

KARACHI: The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Sindh police busted an online arms dealers’ gang that was being operated from Malaysia, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

The CTD arrested two suspected members of an online arms dealers gang during a raid in Karachi’s Korangi area. The CTD spokesperson said that the head of the gang namely Rashaan is operating the gang from Malaysia.

The arrested gang members including Faisal alias Kodu and Mohsin were involved in online smuggling weaponry from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) capital Peshawar or Nowshera city to Karachi.

The CTD officials recovered 9mm pistol and stolen motorcycles from their possession.

It added that Faisal Kodu was an aide to the Burmi Gang’s head and the illegal sale of arms was continued via WhatsApp.

According to the CTD, Faisal provided arms to the assassins of Safdar Rizvi on the directives of the gang head Rashaan. The second suspect used to deliver arms to the buyers by charging Rs5,000 per delivery of weapons.

Five gang members have been arrested by the CTD so far. The arrested members include Faisal alias Kodu, Junaid, Molvi, Zubair Mohsin and Shah Fahad.

In February, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) had arrested a man selling illegal arms through social media in Karachi’s Pirabad area.

The CTD arrested a suspect in Karachi for illegally selling arms. The man was caught red-handed when he came to deliver the ordered weapon to the buyer.

The arrest was made in Karachi’s District West area and the suspect was identified as Nazar Shah. CTD also nabbed the buyer namely Muhammad Shahid.

In a statement, the CTD spokesman stated that the action was taken under the supervision of CTD in-charge Mazhar Mashwani. The accused used to run advertisement campaigns on social media to sell weapons mainly on Facebook and WhatsApp.

The accused created a page under the name of FATA ARM’s Factory (Afridi Bhai Brand) and came to deliver the illegal weapons and was arrested.

The arm enthusiasts set the price on WhatsApp and 10 per cent of the fixed price was paid online as an advance payment.

The spokesman CTD said that delivery of the weapon was done in any part of the country within three to four days, and the person delivering the weapon receives Rs 10,000 per pistol, meanwhile, the remaining amount of the weapon is transferred online.

The arrested accused Nazar Shah was already delivered weapons in Karachi, while the buyer Shahid had sent Rs30,000 online as an advance payment for the weapon.

The recovered pistols were engraved with the names of ‘King’ and ‘Pathan’, while the testing videos of the weapons were sent to Mohammad Shahid, however, further investigation was carried out on the arrested individuals.