• Another policeman dies • Terrorism case registered against TTP
• Two helmet-wearing facilitators caught on camera

KARACHI: While a case has been registered against the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakis­tan for Friday’s attack on Karachi Police Office (KPO), police and other allied agencies appear to be clueless about the mastermind and facilitators of the three militants who barged into the police compound and engaged law-enforcers in a fierce gun battle for hours, it emerged on Sunday.

Also, death toll rises to five as one of the wounded policemen, identified as Abdul Latif, 50, died during treatment at a hospital on Sunday.

Two policemen, one Rangers official and a sanitation worker were martyred and 17 others, mostly law-enforcers, wounded in the Feb 17 attack. After hours-long gun battle, two militants were gunned down while the third one blew himself up on the fourth floor of the building.

DIG-South Irfan Ali Baloch, who is one of the members of the probe body, told Dawn that investigators were looking into an aspect that the militants or their facilitators got help from inside.

“We are looking into the matter from different angles. The point from where the militants cut barbed wire and made an entry was not covered by CCTV cameras,” he said.

He said that the CCTV footage showed that two unidentified men, wearing helmets, saw the three militants off outside KPO and left the place on a motorcycle before the attack began.

DIG Baloch said that the third militant was still unidentified.

Terrorism case registered

Saddar SHO Khalid Memon lodged the FIR against the three militants, their facilitators and TTP spokesperson under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 34 (common intention) read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and Section 3/4 of the Explosives Act 1908.

The investigation has been handed over to the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), the Saddar SHO said.

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The FIR stated that three militants came in a car and they were followed by two men riding a motorbike. The FIR said when the attackers got out of their car the motorcyclists “indicated them towards the KPO, hugged them and rode away”.

The militants entered the KPO from the Saddar police line by cutting the barbed wire on the wall at the backyard of the police headquarters.

Funeral prayer

The SHO said that injured policeman Abdul Latif was admitted to the intensive care unit of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where he breathed his last on Sunday.

A police spokesperson said that the martyred cop had joined the police in 2014 on ex-army quota and was performing his duty at Security-I. He is survived by a widow and seven children, including six daughters, he added.

The funeral prayers were held at the Police Headquarters in Garden. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, chief secretary, inspector general of police, Karachi police chief and other officials attended his last rites.

The chief minister and the IGP met with the victim’s heirs and appreciated his bravery.

Earlier on Saturday, Chief of the Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir flew down to Karachi and attended security meetings. He had said intelligence-based operations were being conducted all over the country.

He along with the Sindh CM visited Karachi Police Office (KPO) as well as the Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and met the wounded law enforcers. The army chief praised the bravery, morale and sacrifices of the army, police and Rangers in the line of duty.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2023