Six Harkat militants held 'after encounter', claim police
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, May 24: Police announced the arrest of six suspects belonging to the banned militant group, Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Alami, after an alleged encounter at a house in Kalakot, Lyari, in the small hours of Monday.
However, Dawn had carried the report in its Monday issue about their arrest by CID police in raids conducted in different localities during the past three days.
In a press release issued by the director press, central office, the police claimed that a raid had been conducted at a house in Kalakot on a lead given by Kamran alias Atif, an activist of the banned group who was arrested earlier. As the police reached there, the suspects hurled a grenade towards the police team but it did not explode.
The police lobbed teargas shells forcing the suspects to surrender, they claimed, adding the arrested suspects belonged to the banned group. According to the police, the suspects identified themselves as Naveed alias Michael alias Bilal alias Shehryar, Imran Khan alias Shakil alias Sunny alias Honey alias Munna, Mohammad Abid alias Nasir, Syed Khurram Shahab alias Farrukh, Mohammad Nasir alias Master and Mohammad Amir alias Nadeem.
The police claimed that the suspects had been planning to get Kamran freed from police custody. They had also designs to kill senior police officers by exploding bombs and committing suicide attacks.
The police described the suspects as 'trained', saying that they had been using the house in Kalakot as their operational headquarters. "They are well-versed with computer technology. The were plotting to strike the prison to get their accomplices freed," claimed the press release.
The police also recovered a huge quantity of arms, ammunition and literature about terrorism. An FIR (No. 120/04) has been registered at the Kalakot police station against the suspects.
Kamran alias Atif, who was arrested on May 19 and who had given the lead to enable the police to arrest the suspects, is stated to be the ring-leader of the banned organization.
He was arrested following a shootout in Buffer Zone. Police had recovered arms, ammunition and literature about making bombs from his possession. During the crossfire, a woman passerby was killed.
