Two 'militants' suspected of affiliation with the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) disclosed information regarding their motives and modus operandi, a senior Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) official told Dawn on Friday.

The two 'LJ militants' Ishaq, alias Bobby, and Asim, alias Capri, from Liaquatabad were arrested earlier this week for involvement in 28 cases, including the high-profile murder of renowned qawwal Amjad Sabri, who was gunned down in Karachi in June.

The CTD's Raja Umer Khattab, officer in-charge of Transnational Terrorism Intelligence Group (TTIG), told Dawn that during an initial interrogation, Capri confessed the men had targeted the famous qawwal as he used to attend majalis in the month of Muharram.

Capri also claimed that Sabri had done a programme on TV channel in which slain activist Khurram Zaki allegedly uttered some questionable words that the qawwal had supported.

According to Khattab, Capri, originally a resident of Karachi's Gulbahar area, shifted to Amjad Sabri's neighbourhood with the intention of targeting him.

The CTD claimed that Capri's two brothers are also militants who are languishing in jails, whereas his third brother was killed in a sectarian attack.

Bobby, considered a ‘computer expert,' told the investigators that he had collected material from the internet regarding the activities of the qawwal, Khattab claimed.

According to the CTD, Bobby, considered an 'expert shooter' was the one to hit Amjad Sabri. A resident of Karachi's Orangi Town, Bobby is a Hafiz-i-Quran who joined LJ in 2012, the CTD said.

Two of Bobby's accomplices, along with other militants, were killed in an encounter with law enforcement agencies during a deadly terror attack on Karachi's Jinnah International Airport in June 2014.

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