SUKKUR: Shahbaz Rangers on Friday claimed to have arrested two Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants in a raid on a Karachi-bound coach coming from Peshawar.

Sindh Rangers Commander Colonel Abdul Ghaffar said in press briefing at the Shahbaz Rangers headquarters here that the 60-Wing personnel on a tip-off carried out a raid on the coach while it was passing through an area near Mirpur Mathelo town of Ghotki district on Thursday night.

They picked up two suspected passengers and during the subsequent interrogation it emerged that they belonged to the TTP, Col Ghaffar said.

Also read: Five suspected Taliban militants, including key commander, arrested in Quetta

Without disclosing the suspects’ names, the Rangers commander said that they were fleeing to Karachi to escape death in the ongoing military operation Zarb-i-Azb and intended to fly to a foreign country, probably the United Arab Emirates.

Col Ghaffar spoke of some startling disclosures by the suspects during the interrogation but declined to share them with the media at this juncture.

He said that another TTP suspect was arrested in a separate action and interrogation with him was under way. “At the moment, we can share the only information with the media that this man was tasked with opening a TTP unit in Shikarpur to coordinate with the network of international terrorism,” the Rangers commander said.

He said that the Sindh Rangers had intensified their operations in line with the directive from the director-general to help imple­ment the National Action Plan and strike terrorists, dacoits, kidnappers and other anti-social elements across the interior of Sindh.

He said 40 major operations had been carried out by the Shahbaz Rangers in recent days in the upper Sindh areas, including Shikarpur, Khairpur Mir’s and Ghotki. Fifty-eight suspects had been arrested and 181 arms along with their ammunition and Jihadi literature seized from many of them, he added.

Col Ghaffar said that among the arrested suspects were 19 high-profile criminals. They included five hardened criminals carrying Rs2.5 million to Rs.300,000 head money announced by the Sindh government.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2015

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