QUETTA/ISLAMABAD: Security agencies have arrested three personnel of Pakistan Navy from Mastung area of Balochistan in connection with the recent terrorist attack on a Naval facility in Karachi’s Dockyard area.

Official sources said on Thursday that the three had been arrested on Monday from the Lakpas area of Mastung when they were going to Quetta from Karachi in a car. It appeared that they had planned to escape to Afghanistan.

“Yes, security officials have arrested three Navy personnel when they were on their way to Quetta from Karachi,” a senior security official said on condition of anonymity.

Another security official, who also requested anonymity, told Dawn.com that the arrests were made during raids conducted on the basis of intelligence reports.

The dockyard attack suspects planned to flee to Afghanistan

“The suspects are Navy officials,” he added, but said nothing about their ranks.

He said some suspects had been apprehended from Ormara and Karachi.

Sources said the three officers arrested from Mastung were taken to Karachi on Tuesday for interrogation.

They said the arrested personnel had provided important information about other people involved in the attack. The sources said the three had hired the car from Karachi and planned to cross into Afghanistan.

The car driver was freed after questioning.

When contacted, Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti said the arrests had not been made by police or any other provincial force. But he did not entirely rule it out.

The role the three could have played in the terrorist attack, which is said to have taken place with insider help, is not clear yet.

A Navy spokesman when contacted refused to confirm or deny the report. “No comment,” the spokesman said, adding that the “investigations were going on and disclosure of any information would be counter-productive”.

The body of Navy officer Owais Jhakrani, who had a few months back quit the armed forces, was found near the scene of the attack and he is being linked to the attack.

The arrest of four of the attackers following the attack had provided the investigators with useful clues based on which several raids have been conducted and a number of arrests have been made.

Defence Minister Khwaja Asif told a joint sitting of parliament that the attack seemed to be an insider job. He said the attack looked to be a blowback of the North Waziristan Operation.

The Dockyard attack was the second major attack on a military installation since Operation Zarb-i-Azb was launched in North Waziristan in mid-June. On Aug 14, the militants had attacked Army Aviation and Air Force bases in Quetta.

The latest attack on the Navy facility that was earlier claimed by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan has now also been claimed by newly formed South Asia wing of Al Qaeda.

“The operation near Karachi shore was an attack by Al Qaeda in the Subcontinent,” a statement in Urdu from the alleged group sent to AFP said.

The Al Qaeda statement claimed that the target of the raid was a “US supply ship” and said the dead attackers included former Pakistan Navy officers.

Although the claim by the Al Qaeda wing appeared questionable, the terrorist outfit was reportedly involved in the 2011 Mehran Base attack. That attack is also said to have taken place with the insider help.

Extremist groups have previously recruited senior armed force officers. In a high-profile case a serving brigadier and four other officers were convicted in Aug 2012 for links with the banned Hizbut Tehreer.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2014