LAHORE: The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) has arrested two alleged ‘facilitators’ of a banned outfit from Lahore but, in a surprise move, booked them and their three accomplices in a high-profile terrorism case in Bahawalpur.

During its investigation into the Gulshan-i-Iqbal Park suicide blast, the CTD arrested suspect Usman Arif from Nizam Block (adjacent to the park), Allama Iqbal Town, Lahore, and recovered from him a 9-MM pistol.

On his pointation, the CTD arrested his accomplice Hameed Bhai from his residence in Azam Garden, Multan Road.

Accused dealt in illegal arms; DCO office, postal staff helped them prepare bogus licences

A five-page interrogation report by CTD’s Lahore officials on the arrest of the suspects also revealed a network comprising officials of the Lahore DCO office and the post office who were involved in issuing fake arms licences to Hameed Bhai.

The CTD, however, nominated both the accused in an FIR lodged against them in Bahawalpur under Section 4 of ESA (Explosive Substances Act VI of 1908), under Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 9 ATA and under Section 13 (2A) 20/65 of the Amended Ordinance 2015.

The CTD Lahore’s report and the FIR lodged against them in Bahawalpur on May 5 revealed different stories.

The discrepancies in the reporting of incidents, places of crime scenes, arrest of the same accused from different cities, their modus operandi and the seizure of booty raise a question mark on the authenticity of the entire process.

Dawn has obtained a copy of the interrogation report as well as the FIR lodged against Usman and Bhai.

In the FIR, the CTD mentioned that ‘time bombs’ had been recovered from the accused during a raid carried out near the River Sutlej.

The Lahore interrogation report by CTD, however, shows recovery of a 9-MM pistol from Usman and several illegal weapons from Bhai. It also mentions seizure of Rs4.6 million in cash and arms licence stamps from Bhai. However, there is no mention of the cash seizure in the FIR.

LAHORE REPORT: It says the CTD first traced Usman through a ‘source’ suspecting his connections with the militant Islamic State group as he had got Jihad training.

During interrogation, the CTD reached Bhai and arrested him on the pointation of Usman.

Bhai revealed that he was involved in issuing fake weapon licences to arms dealers of Lahore and Punjab.

During a search operation, the CTD recovered illegal weapons and several copies of fake arms licences. It also recovered from his house 29 stamps of Lahore DCO office besides huge cash and log book carrying names and addresses of the arms dealers.

The report says during interrogation, Bhai told the CTD that he had paid frequent visits to the KP and Afghanistan and was a known arms supplier in Pakistan.

He further revealed a big network comprising employees of the Lahore DCO office and the post office worked for him in issuing fake arms licences.

They included Waqar Ali, Sohail Babar, Mohammad Arif, Shaukat Ali, Nasir, Nadeem Abbas Bhatti and Safdar from the DCO office and post master Abdul Razzaq of Sodiwal office.

The employees would prepare fake licences in back dates, the report says. Bhai would sell each fake licence for Rs20,000. Of the amount, a major share of Rs15,000 went to the employees.

Hameed Bhai would purchase illegal weapons from Peshawar and Darra Adam Khel from Ilyas and his brothers, Noor Habib and Kalim Ullah. He would then supply the same to the arms dealers and religious organisations in Punjab against bogus licences, the report says.

Mentioning a list of arms dealers, the report says every dealer has obtained 500 each or more fake licences.

In its report, the CTD feared that Bhai had been supplying illegal weapons to the banned militant organisations for use in terrorism activities in Punjab and other parts of the country besides hardened criminals and extortionists.

The Bahawalpur FIR: It depicts entirely a different story. It claims that some policemen were on way by official vans to conduct raids for the arrest of some criminals.

They got a tip-off from an informer that five people carrying bags were moving towards the Sutlej under mysterious circumstances. The informer said the suspects might be heading towards railway tracks for terrorism.

It says, on seeing the police party, the suspects tried to escape. The police, however, nabbed them after a brief chase.

During body search, the CTD recovered red and black hand bags from a suspect carrying a time bomb (with eight minute). The suspect was later identified as Abdul Hameed, a resident of Azam Garden, Multan Road, Lahore.

After searching another suspect, the police officials recovered from him a bag which was also carrying a time bomb. This suspect was identified as Usman Arif, a resident of Nizam Block, Allama Iqbal Town, Lahore.

The FIR also mentioned the same story while searching three other suspects declaring them accomplices of Hameed and Usman. All the five were accused of carrying time bombs and illegal weapons for plotting a terrorism act in Bahawalpur.

CTD STANCE: CTD Punjab Additional IG Rai Tahir clarified position saying that his department had been collecting secret intelligence/evidence on these terror suspects for quite some time.

“When information became ripe for intelligence based operation, the suspects fled to Bahawalpur from where they were arrested and a case was registered there in CTD police station,” he said.

He said along with recovery of other material including explosives, an amount to the tune of Rs4600,000 was also recovered from them. This amount is now the part of the case and the CTD has requested the trial court to put this money in double lock treasury.

To a question, he said the amount was not mentioned in the FIR because it was recovered on the pointation of an accused. The accused had concealed this amount in a ditch near Sutlej, he said.

He further said the arrested suspects had also used the same religious school in Lahore for facilitation of terrorism which was earlier used by two Uzbek brothers, Rehmatullah and Naimatullah. These brothers had links with a gang which was involved in the kidnapping of son of a high profile government functionary in 2011.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2016