Naimat Khan
KARACHI: Police have arrested a suspected terrorist associated with newly emerged Ansarul Shariah Pakistan (ASP) outfit here from Karachi’s Kehkashan homes amid countrywide hunt for the terrorists, security sources say.
According to credible sources, the alleged terrorist, Saqib Jamal, who his friends say had been member of leftist Student organization – National Student Federation (NSF) – has been arrested on tip off from the terrorists who were already in the custody of police.
The arrest, police sources said, was made on Thursday night, which is contradicted by family’s claim that Jamal had been picked by plain clothes CTD men on last Sunday.
The suspect, who was shifted to undisclosed location, is highly educated and was working in private company, police told.
Earlier, a section of media quoted Mother of Saqib Jamal, claiming that her son was innocent.
According to report, on September 3, 2017, Jamal told his parents that he wanted to attend barbecue dinner at his friend house and would be back at midnight.
According to his mother when Jamal reached his friend’s house, he fell asleep waiting for the barbecue to start. At approximately 10pm on September 3, 2017, the friend’s house was raided by men in civilian clothes accompanied by policemen claiming to be from Sindh’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD).
Saqib, along with the others at the apartment, was taken away for allegedly maintaining links with a new militant group named Ansar-ul-Sharia Pakistan (ASP).
Saqib’s father Kaukab Jamal said that he forgotten how to sleep because it’s been days now since our son’s disappearance. “Saqib can’t be associated to any militant group, and if God forbid he is, then he should be presented to the court so that a fair trial can be held.”
One of his friends told that Jamal was part of a leftist student organization trying to restore campus democracy in the city.
Though “accidently” busted, the newly formed Ansarul Shariah Pakistan (ASP) terror outfit can’t be equated with Islamic State-Inspired Youth Network of Karachi, disclosed a senior police official.
“Though several members of the group have obtained military training from Afghanistan they were never capable for carrying out any violent act, except target killing” told a security source, adding that the way Hasaan, one of the group members, failed to escape and got killed speaks volume of the group’s incapability.
Most of the claims by Ansarul Shariah Pakistan have also turned out to be fake, especially its claim of terrorist acts in Quetta, Hub, Chaghi and other parts of Balochistan.
According to official, the group is mostly comprised of youths from Karachi. When asked if those arrested from Quetta and Multan had started working in those areas, the official claimed they had gone there just to escape arrest.
Meantime, a suspected terrorist belonging to militant outfit Ansarul Shariah was taken into custody by intelligence agencies during a police raid in Multan early Thursday.
