KARACHI: Four suspected militants linked with the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, whose arrest was shown by the police’s Counter-Terrorism Department on Friday, have made startling disclosures during initial investigation, it emerged on Saturday.

The arrested suspects are Abdul Rauf alias Abu Rizwan and Mohammad Kamran alias Huzaifa, affiliated with the LJ; and Keftan Khan alias Kafayatullah and Mohammad Irshad alias Zakaria linked with the TTP.

According to CTD officials, Abdul Rauf alias Abu Rizwan had also remained a close aide and member of a new outfit called Ansarul Sharia Pakistan (ASP). He hailed from Federal B Area, and got both modern and religious education.

LJ, TTP suspects disclose how they got militancy training

He completed Dars-i-Nizami (religious scholar course) from a seminary in 2009. He told the investigators that he joined Jamaatud Dawa in 2003, whose workers motivated him for jihad. Later on, he got militancy training.

In 2004, he met Shaharyar alias Dr Abdullah Hashmi, one of the ASP ringleaders. Dr Hashmi was recently killed by law enforcers in an ‘encounter’ as it transpired that this outfit was allegedly involved in the attack on Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Khwaja Izharul Hasan.

Abdul Rauf told the investigators that Dr Abdullah Hashmi (now killed) and Abdul Karim Sarosh Siddiqi (at large) motivated him for Afghan jihad when they had left Jaish-i-Mohammad.

The CTD officials said that he with Dr Hashmi and Sarosh got militancy training in Afghanistan in 2013. Later on, he started collecting funds.

Another arrested LJ militant, Mohammad Kamran alias Huzaifa, originally came from Murree. They got both modern and religious education in Islamabad.

Later on, he studied in two seminaries in Chiniot and Faisalabad where he completed Dars-i-Nizami in 2015. He was motivated by a member of the banned outfit to join militancy when he was studying in Chiniot. In 2013, he got militancy training in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and motivated youngsters for militancy.

He told the investigators that his brother was an employee of an embassy of an important Western country in Islamabad.

The TTP suspect, Keftan Khan, originally hailed from Tank and came to Karachi in 1994. He told the investigators that he was motivated by a local commander of the TTP to join militancy when he visited his native place in 2007. Later on, he got militancy training in Mirali with other militants.

He told the CTD investigators that in 2009, TTP militants shifted their focus from ‘Afghan jihad’ to targeting law enforcers in Pakistan.

Keftan also revealed that there were at least four militants who were generating funds and recruiting youngsters for the TTP in different parts of Malir. One of them was a brother of a TTP ‘commander’ dealing in diesel at Ghaghar Phatak.

Another held TTP militant, Mohammad Irshad, belonged to Mishta in South Waziristan and had shifted to Karachi’s Malir in 1999. He got religious education at different seminaries in the metropolis and completed Dars-i-Nizami course. He told the investigators that he was motivated by a class fellow of his in a seminary to join jihad in 2007, when he was studying in a seminary in Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

In the same year, he with other seminary fellows started watching ‘Jihadi videos’ at Al-Asif Square and volunteered to participate in jihad.

In 2008, he with others visited Makeen in KP where he got militancy training.

Later, the suspect told the CTD investigators that he asked the head of the training centre in Makeen to send him for Afghan jihad. However, the head of the militancy training centre handed him over to a local commander of the TTP in the Tupper Gai area, where the TTP commander motivated him and others “to fight against LEAs in Pakistan instead of [Afghanistan], which they agreed upon.”

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2018