ISLAMABAD: The army claimed on Thursday to have made key arrests in connection with the Dec 16 Peshawar school attack and said that all involved in it, except six, had either been killed or captured.

“The gang involved in the Army Public School (APS) attack has been identified. It comprised 27 terrorists, 12 of whom have been arrested in Pakistan and Afghanistan, nine have been killed and six are at large,” Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj Gen Asim Bajwa said at a media briefing at the General Headquarters.

The attack claimed the lives of 133 students and 16 school staff.

The claim about the arrests came as parents of the students killed in the attack protested against slow-paced inves­tigation into the carnage.

The main planners and facilitators who are at large include Tehreek-i-Taliban Pak­­is­tan chief Mullah Faz­lul­lah (mastermind), Aurang­zaib alias Umar Khalifa Ameer Naray (co-planner), Asif Ali alias Kamran (main operation commander), Taj Mohammad alias Rizwan (one of the two sub-operation commanders), Mudassir (handler of the attackers) and Misbah alias Qari Saifullah (facilitator).

The six arrested in Pakistan are: Atiq (a sub-operation commander), a government-employed cleric at a mosque Abdus Salam (facilitator), Kifayat (facilitator), Hazrat Ali (financier and fund raiser, who also carried a head money of Rs2.5 million), Sabeel Yahya Afridi (involved in transporting the attackers) and Mujeebur Rehman (host of the attackers in Jamrud).

The army is sure that mastermind Fazlullah and planner Naray are currently in Afghanistan.

Naray remained in touch with the attackers when they were carrying out the killings in the school. He spoke to one of the attackers, identified as Ahmadullah, over phone, asking him about the casualties and urging him to take hostages as well.

ISPR says all those involved, except six, either killed or captured

The recorded call was played at the briefing and is believed to be the same which was shared with the Afghan authorities immediately after the strike.

PRAISE FOR AFGHA­NISTAN: Gen Bajwa praised Afghanistan’s cooperation and said its security forces had arrested six of the attackers on intelligence provided by Pakistan.

“Both Mullah Fazlullah and Naray will soon be either captured or killed,” Gen Bajwa expressed hopes on the basis of improved counter-terrorism cooperation with Afghanistan.

Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif had, immediately after the school attack, visited Afghanistan and shared with Kabul information about the terrorists who directed the attack from their sanctuaries in that country. He was assured of full cooperation by the Afghan government.

Gen Sharif will soon travel to Afghanistan again.

Gen Bajwa said ISI chief Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar had twice visited Afghanistan.

Islamabad has asked Kabul to extradite the six terrorists arrested in Afghanistan so that they could be tried for the crimes.

“I see no reason that Afghanistan will not hand over the six men to Pakistan,” Gen Bajwa said.

Of the nine dead terrorists, six died during the attack and three, belonging to Jamrud, were killed during intelligence-based operations (IBOs). They have been identified as Saddam, Khurshid and Japani.

The army started the IBOs after the launch of Zarb-i-Azb operation to pre-empt TTP backlash. The operations were intensified after the APS carnage and 1,942 IBOs took place after that. Since June the army has carried out 6,002 IBOs in which 176 hardcore terrorists have been killed.

Recapping the events that preceded the school attack, Gen Bajwa said the strike was Mullah Fazlullah’s brainchild. He roped in Naray, who later assigned the plan to Asif Ali alias Haji Kamran, the main operation commander. The plot was hatched in June last year at some unspecified place on the border with Afghanistan.

Haji Kamran constituted two groups, led by Atiq (arrested) and Taj Muhammad (absconder).

The entire group of six attackers, along with handlers, first stayed in Jamrud for four nights at the house of Mujeeb (arrested) before travelling to Peshawar a day before the attack.

On reaching Peshawar the killers split into two groups – one stayed at a rented house in Tehkal area and the other was hosted by Maulvi Abdus Salam at his home near the school.

Both groups assembled at Salam’s home on Dec 16 before leaving for the school. Their handler Mudassir stayed behind and is still on the run.

“The arrests send a clear message to the terrorists that anyone challenging the writ of the state will be brought to justice,” Gen Bajwa said.

He claimed that those arrested were involved in other high-profile attacks, including Peshawar’s Meena Bazar attack, Tarnol suicide attack on a vehicle carrying two officers of a defence organisation, Peshawar Imambargah strike and a bombing in Rawalpindi.

Published in Dawn February 13th , 2015

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