04 March 2005	Friday	22 Muharram 1426

KARACHI, March 3: Six suspects, having alleged links with an Indian intelligence agency, RAW, and involved in bomb explosions and other terrorist activities in the interior of Sindh , have been arrested by the police on a lead given by the army intelligence.

The suspects have been arrested following a raid at a house in Baloch Colony where they had been hiding and from where explosives, weapons and anti-state literature have been recovered.

"The arrested men were carrying out their activities on the orders of the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) of the neighbouring country", the acting inspector general of Sindh police Asad Jahangir told a news conference at driving licence branch in Clifton here on Thursday.

He said: "An army intelligence agency provided the police clue to the alleged terrorists and the police raided a house in Baloch Colony at 2am and arrested Mazhar Bhatti alias Sarang, Syed Ghulam Asghar alias Ali Raza Shah, Imran Leghari, Fayyaz Jhanwari, Sanaullah Bhatti, and Rafiq Leghari.

"We have also seized from them a 7mm rifle, four pistols, 60 kilograms of explosive, five detonators, three electro-detonators, four Russian-made grenades, and a 60-foot safety fuse."

In his first press conference after taking over as acting IG Sindh, Mr Jahangir did not mention the name of their organization , but emphasised that suspects, belonging to the interior of Sindh, were affiliated with a terrorist organization, which was allegedly being patronized by some active members of RAW.

He also pointed out that besides RAW, the organization was funded by some anti-state elements in the countries of Middle East and West. However, he did not name any of the countries.

The acting IG claimed that the suspects had gone for visits abroad to get financial assistance and targets which they were planning to attack. However, he did not disclose the name of countries visited by the suspects. He said: "We are in the process of investigation and cannot share more information with the press at the moment."

He claimed that the suspect got training at a place, 30 km away from Sibi where they were taught how to make bombs, and how to operate weapons. They were briefed about anti-state activities and motivated to perpetrate terrorist attacks.

He recalled that an operation against an organization in Balochistan was launched in the past weeks and the suspects could have links with that organization, too.

He said that the suspects told the police during initial investigation that they had been given three main targets, viz-a-viz, to attack sensitive installations, sabotage peaceful atmosphere and create ethnic hatred.

The acting IG said they had been involved in at least seven terrorist activities, including bomb explosion on railway track near Tando Adam on Aug 16, 2004; blast at new Jamshoro Indus River Bridge on Jan 18; and explosion at 500KV high tension line and destroying two high tension line towers in Taluka Sehwan on Jan 8, 2003.

He said that a joint investigation team of the DIG Investigation Zone-1, and the Crime Investigation Department (CID) had been set up to interrogate the suspects and find more information about other culprits.