KARACHI: The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Sindh police on Tuesday claimed to have arrested an alleged hitman associated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London.

In a statement, the CTD said that the suspect identified as Shamshad Khan was arrested in a raid in a Soldier Bazaar locality.

He has allegedly confessed to have killed several activists of rival parties.

The police statement claimed that the suspect got militancy training in India, where the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) had trained him.

“Shamshad Khan is a professional killer associated with MQM-London,” it said. “He was trained by the Indian agency RAW. The arrested man is associated with the MQM as a sector in-charge of Gulbahar area and directly involved in a dozen killings of different people. He fled to India after the first operation was launched in Karachi and returned back after a few years.”

It said that the then MQM leadership arranged his contact with the Indian secret agency and he was given militancy training in Mumbai and was prepared for terrorist activities in Karachi to destabilise the city’s peace.

“He was entrusted with the task [of] killing policemen, personnel of intelligence agencies and political activists of rival parties mainly to create chaos in Karachi,” claimed the CTD statement.

“Shamshad Khan in his targets in Karachi had killed two workers of MQM-Haqiqi group — Asif alias Captain and Faheem alias Fehmi — in 1994 and targeted three other activists of the same party named Ansar, Kamran and Rafiq Pappu in 1995.”

Convicted and jailed twice for various crimes, the suspect had killed MQM workers Hamid in 2013 and Tarash and Haider Hussain in 2014, said the statement adding that the same year he also killed Sarfaraz, alias Bodybuilder, and Faraz of MQM Nazimabad Unit.

‘Rs10m’ robbery

Armed bandits on Tuesday snatched Rs10 million from a private company manager in Bahadurabad and sped away.

The police said that a private company manager, Naseer Ahmed, along with his employer and driver was intercepted by two armed robbers riding a motorcycle soon after he came out of a bank branch after withdrawing cash near Char Minar Chowrangi in Bahadurabad.

They said that the robbers snatched a bag carrying Rs10m from the manager at gunpoint and sped away.

The police after registering a case against unidentified robbers at the New Town police station have launched a probe into the incident, they added.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2021