ISLAMABAD: An activist of the banned outfit Hizbut Tahrir (HuT) was arrested from the capital on Monday and anti-Pakistan and anti-army literature was recovered from him, police said.

A case was registered against him at the Karachi Company Police Station on the complaint of Station House Officer (SHO) Inspector Mubarak Ali under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) section 11-F for membership, support and meetings related to a proscribed organisation.

The arrest was made when the police intercepted a Khyber car in G-9 sector and found two packets of anti-Pakistan literature, including 40 pamphlets and 464 copies of other reading material, in the rear seat of the car.

SHO Inspector Mubarak Ali said that after preliminary interrogation, the accused was presented before a court and was taken to jail on judicial remand.

The arrested man is a software engineer and is employed at a company, the SHO said, adding that he holds two masters degrees from the International Islamic University Islamabad.

During interrogation, it was found that HuT members communicate with each other via the internet and that literature, like that found with the arrested man, was also sent online and printed for distribution.

Security agencies had been asked last December to keep an eye out for possible activities by the banned HuT, a police officer told Dawn.

The officer said that reports had indicated that the banned outfit will be distributing reading material at worship places.

“It was suspected the outfit will do this after Friday prayers or after Isha prayers. Police were deployed at worship places on Friday and were directed to remain on duty there till the last worshiper had left,” he added.

He said some buildings and areas, including E-11, I-9, I-10, Super Market and Jinnah Super were routinely patrolled as HuT had been active there in the past.

After a year of being inactive in the city, HuT had spurred into action in August of last year and had pasted and distributed pamphlets in I-8 and F-10 inviting residents to join the outfit for bringing a caliphate in the country, a police official said.

The organisation had also sought help from the people to get rid of democracy and enforce Sharia, he added.

HuT is an international organisation, formed in 1953 in Jerusalem by a Palestinian scholar, that aims for all Muslim countries to come together and form an Islamic state or a caliphate that will be ruled with Islamic law.

It was banned in Pakistan in 2004 and the majority of its activists are from the upper class and are well educated professionals.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2016