HYDERABAD, March 3: Police on Saturday said they had arrested a five-member gang of terrorists involved in some two dozen bomb explosions in Karachi and Hyderabad.
Explosives, weapons, currency notes and cheque books were recovered from the possession of the gang members who allegedly received training from the intelligence agency of a neighbouring country.
The accused were Zulfiqar Bhurgari from Qasimabad, Maula Bukhsh Nohani from Karachi, Hameed Samejo from Umerkot, Musa Samejo from Chachhro and Ali Nawaz Leghari from Badin, said RPO Hyderabad Sultan Salahuddin Babar Khattak while speaking at a press conference.
Four of their accomplices escaped, he added.
“The arrested persons carried out at least 12 bomb explosions in Karachi and 12 in Hyderabad at the behest of a foreign intelligence agency," he said, providing a two-page list featuring the names of places where they had allegedly carried out the blasts.
RPO Khattak did not divulge the name of the intelligence agency that trained the gang.
He said since the accused had been arrested only 16 hours ago, at 8pm, the investigations were in initial stages and the media would have to wait for some time for more disclosures. The arrests were made from an abandoned structure near the railway track in Sahrish Nagar. He said explosives weighing 3kg, five pistols, maps, passports, foreign drafts and other items were seized from the suspected terrorists.
"They have been travelling to Dubai and Nepal," he told a questioner.
The police official replied in affirmative when asked whether explosives weighing 12kg had been recovered from a place in Nawabshah on the lead provided by the suspects.
He said three of the accused had been taken to Nawabshah after they had made disclosures about the explosive material.
Meanwhile, Hameed Samejo and Musa Samejo, were produced before the civil judge and the judicial magistrate-I amid tight security. They were remanded in police custody for two days.
Our Nawabshah correspondent adds: The other three – Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhurgari, Maula Bukhsh Nohani and Ali Nawaz Leghari – were brought to Nawabshah and presented before the judicial magistrate-III amid tight security.
The accused were remanded for seven days after which they were taken to the District Jail Nawabshah, but the jail administration refused to admit them due to security reasons. They were then taken to the Hyderabad Jail.
Earlier on the basis of the lead provided by the three accused, police recovered explosive material weighing 12kg from the Ali Shah graveyard near Quaid-i-Awam University of Engineering, Science & Technology at Sakrand road.
REUTERS ADDS: Senior police official Shaukat Shah told Reuters: “They have links with the Sindh Liberation Army which has carried out subversive activities in the province in the past.”
