CRIME NEWS
By Daily Dawn 4th March
ISLAMABAD, March 3: After claiming to have re-arrested one of the country’s most mysterious militants, Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the interior ministry has started to backtrack on its earlier disclosure, with its spokesman now claiming that there existed no record of his arrest.
According to international news agencies, the re-arrest of the militant leader from Lahore, along with his three sons, was confirmed on Feb 26 by Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz. He was also quoted as saying that the action had been taken in connection with the October 18 suicide attack in Karachi in the initial attempt to assassinate PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto.
Quoting interior ministry and intelligence sources, Pakistani television channels had kept reporting his arrest almost the entire day, and it was reported by most of the newspapers on February 27, some quoting the interior minister. And some of the reports had said that he was being questioned for his alleged links with Al Qaeda and the plot to assassinate the former prime minister.
During all this period there was no official contradiction from the ministry of interior, or any security agency. However, when recently contacted by Dawn, the official spokesman for the interior ministry, Brig (retd) Javed Cheema, said he had checked with all the concerned departments, and there was no record of Qari Akhtar’s arrest.
MISSING PERSONS: But this is certainly not the first time that Qari Saifullah Akhtar has been in the midst of such a controversy. In fact, the pro-Al Qaeda militant’s involvement in the strangest of terror-related actions, conspiracies, arrests, quiet releases, deportation, re-arrest from a third country and subsequent release after being kept in detention without trial, have continued to boggle the mind of many observers of militant politics in Pakistan and the region.
The last time Qari Saifullah’s name was heard was when in the midst of a high-profile ‘missing peoples’ case in the Supreme Court, he was mentioned by the campaigners as one of the many people who had disappeared after having been arrested. He was described as an Islamist who was arrested in Dubai two years earlier and handed over to the Pakistani authorities. But Qari Akhtar was never produced before any court of law, and when the Supreme Court, under the former chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, kept insisting on the status of the so-called ‘missing persons’, the interior ministry last year informed the court that Qari Saifullah Akhtar was among those recently set free by the authorities as there was no case against him.
And then no one heard of Qari Akhtar till the news about his re-arrest was leaked late last month. Perhaps the only other mention of his name was in the late Ms Bhutto’s recently released book, in which she had described him as one of the militants who had been after her life.
DEADLY MILITANT: Though Qari Saifullah Akhtar’s link with the Oct 18 deadly blast in Karachi was yet to be established by the authorities, his earlier involvement in a failed coup plot of 1995 had presented him as one of the most deadly pro-Kashmiri militants who, from the security establishment’s standpoint, had gone astray. The group that was busted by the military intelligence at the time included four military officers, including a major-general, who were accused of plotting to first takeover the army’s headquarters by assassinating top military commanders, and later overthrow the Benazir government and enforce their own brand of Shariah in the country.
Qari Akhtar was among the five top members of the group which was headed by Major-General Zahirul Islam Abbassi, with Brigadier Mustansir Billa having been described as the group’s ideologue. They were formerly charged by the field court martial with conspiring to assassinate military commanders with the help of a group of Kashmir militants from Harkatul Ansar who were to be provided by the Qari, along with arms and ammunition needed for the operation.
However, once the field general court martial formerly started, Qari Akhtar’s name was dropped from the list of accused as he had turned approver. It was later admitted by one of the members of the court martial that without his testimony it would have been extremely difficult to convict the main accused, including the major-general.
AFGHAN CONNECTION: At some stage Qari Akhtar was released and then his name was heard from Afghanistan where after a year’s break he had regrouped his faction of Harkat-ul-Ansar and once again named it Harkat-al-Jihad-al-Islami. The faction that stayed behind on the Pakistani side of Kashmir also revived its original name of Harkatul Mujahideen headed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, till it was proscribed by the Americans in the aftermath of Sept 11, 2001, as a terrorist organisation.
Some unconfirmed reports say that around 1996 he was in Kandahar and had the status of an adviser to Mulla Omar. Whether this was true or not, during the Taliban period he had a big group of Pakistani militants in Afghanistan, who were mostly referred to by the locals as ‘Punjabi’ Taliban.
During the American-led attack on the Taliban forces in Afghanistan in late 2001, one of the houses bombed and destroyed belonged to Qari Akhtar’s militants. More than 50 people were killed in the bombing, but the militant leader and several of his associates survived. He later fled to the Gulf, only to be arrested in Dubai in 2004 and handed back to the Pakistani authorities.
Some reports say that during his stay in Afghanistan he had also established links with a group of Pakistani militants, who called themselves members of Harkatul Mujahideen al-Aalami, who were later involved in a number of attacks, including an attempt to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf in Karachi.
Analysts of militant politics in the region say there was a time when Qari Saifullah, along with Fazlur Rehman Khalil and others, formed a formidable group to fight the Indian forces in Kashmir. But over a period of time, differences within the group and frustrations over less-than-expected achievements disillusioned the Qari. And it was at that time that he joined hands with a group of disgruntled military officers to try and eliminate the military and civilian leadership in 1995 to enforce Shariah.
However, his activities since his earlier release from custody remain shrouded in mystery, and so is the reluctance shown by the Pakistani authorities to bring him to justice for alleged unlawful militant activities. Now doubts have been created if he had at all been arrested. And according to some observers, the reason may be that he perhaps knows a bit too much.
21 members of a family killed
By Daily Dawn Correspondent
JHANG, Feb 21: Twenty-one members of a family were killed and four others were injured in a bus accident near the Aliabad police post on the Jhang-Bhakkar road, some nine kilometres from here, on Thursday.
Reports reaching here said that the family was returning to Mehram Sial in Shorkot tehsil after attending the funeral of a relative in Jhang when their bus collided head-on with a coach coming from the opposite direction. Fifteen people died on the spot and three others on way to the Allied Hospital in Faisalabad. Three of the injured died in the local DHQ Hospital.
The deceased were identified as Amna Bibi, Aysha Bibi, Hanifan Bibi, Maryam, Haleema, Fatima, Ramzana Bibi, Salawat Bibi, Zulaikha, Salma, Sharifan, Khatoon Bibi, Muhammad Ismail, Muhammad Ishfaq, Nadia, Fatima, Shahbaz, Ismael, Burhia Bibi, Ramzan and Bibi. The injured were Hajra Bibi, Khadeeja, Saira and a two-year-old child.
Daily Dawn
News
KARACHI, Feb 15: Police have arrested 10 members of a militant organisation linked to the Taliban. They were planning massive terror attacks in the city during the elections, a senior police official said on Friday.
Addressing a press conference, IG Sindh Azhar Ali Farooqi said the militant outfit, Tehrik-i-Islami Lashkar-i-Muhammadi, had ties with Mullah Dadullah, Taliban Commandar Tahir and Sirajul Haq Haqqani. A large quantity of explosives found in their possession was seized.
He said the group was planning attacks on political and religious leaders and philanthropists, adding that it had also obtained lists of members of the Rotary and Lions clubs and Theosophical Society.
“They had plans to sabotage the election process. The city and the province as a whole have been saved from a major disaster,” Mr Farooqi said.
According to a press release issued by the Sindh police, a warning letter by the group addressed to military institutions, intelligence agencies and police read: “You people have become part of the conspiracies hatched by the infidels. You have lost the difference between friends and foes and you are fighting against your fellow countrymen and the Mujahideen. Now you have two options before you -- become protectors of Islam and the country and turn against those who order you to act against the fellow countrymen.”
Mr Farooqi said the arrested men were formerly members of other banned outfits, like Jaish-i-Mohammed and Harkatul Mujahideen, but after the Lal Masjid operation they formed a group of their own because their former organisations had ‘deviated’ from their mission.
About their funding, the IG said that the main financier of the group had been identified as Mohammad Hassan Hamid Amir who was absconding. The group also looted banks to generate funds, he said.
The IG Sindh said that police had also seized a lab in the Korangi Industrial Area where new recruits were given training in making bomb and booby traps and in spying techniques. The men were involved in the killing of Liaquat Husain, Dara Feroz Mirza and Dr Hameedullah.
SP Operations CID Raja Umar Khattab told Dawn that the group had got information from the three victims about members of the Rotary and Lions clubs and Theosophical Society for preparing a hit-list.
In 2007, the outfit looted 150 walky-talkies and laptops from a shop. The looted items were handed over to Taliban Commandar Tahir in Sohrab Goth who delivered them to Dadullah.
The arrested men are Asif Iqbal alias K. Area Wala, Yasir Afaq alias Nasir alias Saad, Mohammad Jan alias Mustafa, Abdul Wahid alias Zubair, Ziaul Abdeen alias Zain, Mohammad Asif, Inyatullah Khan alias Tauseef, Mohammad Arshad alias Asad, Mohammad Zeeshan alias Shani alias Mustan Baloch and Mohammad Ahmed alias Waseem.
Two members of the group, Mohammad Kashif and Mohammad Bin Ahmed, were arrested in 2007. Police seized three SMGs, one rifle, two pistols, four hand-grenades, 30 detonators, two bombs, 5kg of petroleum jelly, five walky-talkies, 10kg of RDX, 15kg of prepared explosive, CDs, maps, hundreds of bullets and two motorcycles.
Daily Dawn News
RAWALPINDI, Feb 15: The statement of another man arrested on Thursday night for his alleged involvement in the December 27 attack on former prime minister PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto was recorded on Friday and the joint investigation team also accused him of being involved in other terrorist attacks in the city and the district.
SP Investigations Tahir Ayub brought Abdul Rasheed to the court for the recording of his statement under Section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code. According to the investigators, the accused confessed to his involvement in the gun and suicide attack on the PPP leader.
After recording the statement, Special Judicial Magistrate Ahmed Masood Janjua sent the suspect to the central jail Adiala on judicial remand for 14 days. Police had brought Abdul Rasheed from Shabqadar in the NWFP to the court.
The man was arrested in Rawalpindi. He is said to be an important member of the network involved in the assassination of Ms Bhutto, but was not one of the five who carried out the attack. The investigators also claimed that Abdul Rasheed had been involved in the suicide attacks on security personnel in Rawalpindi.
Mohammad Asghar adds:“Abdul Rasheed is an important person in Ms Bhutto’s case as he knows everything about the incident,” Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, who is leading the joint investigation team, told Dawn.
“The number of accused in the case may rise as investigation is still under way,” he said.
Mr Majeed denied that Rasheed had supplied weapons to Hasnain and Rafaqat for the attack.
LONDON, Feb 15: A British jury on Friday convicted a fifth suspect of joining in a plot to kidnap and decapitate a British soldier.
Zahoor Iqbal, 30, was found guilty of helping Parviz Khan to supply equipment to people in Pakistan for terrorist activities. The jury in Leicester, England, cleared Iqbal of another charge of possessing a document likely to be useful to a terrorist.
Khan was convicted of concocting a plot to lure an unidentified Muslim soldier into a trap and then cut off his head. He pleaded guilty to four charges linked to the plot and other offences.
The jury acquitted Amjad Mahmood, 32, of Birmingham, of a charge of helping supply equipment for terrorist activities.—AP
| SHC dismisses plea of convict, orders trial court to issue black warrants |
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| Saturday, February 16, 2008 By The News International correspondent Karachi The Sindh High Court (SHC) dismissed a petition of a convict in the death row after the legal heirs rejected his compromise claim. The court recalling its previous order directed the trial court to issue black warrants for execution of the convict. On February 11, the SHC suspended the execution of Javed as the court was informed by the convict’s counsel that the convict and legal heirs entered into a compromise. Javed Malik was handed down death sentence by the anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi for killing Aamir Kakar and injuring Farid on July 10, 1997 in Gulshan-e-Iqbal area Karachi. Mohammad Ashraf Kakar, whose son Aamir Kakar was killed by Javed, filed an urgent application in the SHC submitting that the convict made false representation before the court that the legal heirs entered into out of court compromise. He said that at no point they had contacted and entered into an agreement. He submitted that the convict’s statement was tantamount to contempt of court as the legal heirs were not at all ready to forgive the convict who killed his beloved son in cold blood. The court was prayed to recall its previous order and ordered the execution of the convict to meet ends of justice. SHC’s division bench comprising Justice Mrs Qaiser Iqbal and Justice Syed Mehmood Alam Rizvi after hearing the case dismissed the petition of convict and directed the trial court to issue black warrants against him for his execution. |
| Goat trader murdered in Pak Colony |
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Saturday, February 16, 2008
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KARACHI: Students urged to take interest in criminology