|
|
| July 19, 2005 | Tuesday | Jumadi-us-Sani 11, 1426 |
Gas pipeline explosion suspects arrested
KARACHI, July 18: Acting on an information provided by army intelligence, police have arrested five suspected terrorists for their alleged involvement in acts of blowing up gas pipelines and power transmission lines in the interior of Sindh. Karachi police chief Tariq Jamil told a news conference here on Monday that the five belonged to a terrorist organisation which had links with the Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
However, he did not disclose name of the organization. He said the suspects themselves did not directly belong to RAW, but they worked under people who had strong links with the Indian intelligence agency.
Mr Jamil also said that the arrested terrorists had gathered near the underpass in Al-Falah Society to finalize a plan to attack the railway track near Kotri and gas pipeline and power transmission line in Dadu.
When they were about to leave, the investigation wing of police raided the place and arrested them. The information about them had been provided by an army intelligence agency, he said.
He identified the suspects as Faiz Chandio, Saleem Soomro, Tahir Soomro, Ghulam Nabi Saharan and Ghulam Omar alias Raja Dahir.
Police found five pistols, 20 kilograms of explosive, detonators, safety fuses, anti-state literature and material on guerrilla warfare in their possession.
He said that six more terrorists of the same group had been arrested in March this year and they had confessed to having blown up gas pipelines and power transmission lines. He said he felt that had these suspects not been arrested they would have succeeded in blowing up railway tracks and many people could have died.
According to him, the suspects told police that they had received training in a camp, about 30 kilometres off Sibi, for carrying out subversive activities. However, the city police chief did not disclose names of the people who ran the training camp and said that investigations were continuing and the information would be divulged at an appropriate time.
Giving details of the subversive activities carried out by the suspects, the police chief said that they were involved in blowing up a gas pipeline in Seeta Road village in Dadu in March 2004, the Bokhari gas pipeline in Tando Mohammad Khan in March 2004, a power transmission line in Dadu in August 2004 and a gas pipeline in Matiari in October 2004.
They also made an attempt to destroy the Jamshoro Bridge in January this year and were also involved in several other terrorist activities, he added.
|
|
