GUJRAT: Police on Friday claimed to have killed one of the attackers who tried to set free from their custody the Gujrat emir of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) whom a police party was taking somewhere for the identification of a place. In the cross-fire the under custody TTP man was also killed.

The District Police Officer of Gujrat, Rai Ijaz Ahmed, told reporters that the police party was taking TTP’s Gujrat emir, Afzal Fauji, for the recovery of two religious leaders’ bodies whom Afzal and his accomplices had allegedly killed and buried in a stormwater drain in Bhimbher, near Khawasur village.

He said when the party was near Khawaspur village some people opened fire on it. Policemen returned fire, sparking an exchange of fire which lasted about an hour. A policeman suffered bullet injury in the clash, he added.

The attacker who was killed in the clash was identified as Ahmed alias Baba, a resident of Sadar Gojra in Toba Tek Singh district. The other attackers fled after his killing.

The DPO said Afzal Fauji, a resident of Tibbi Ganda village, was on physical remand for his alleged involvement in cases of terrorism, including the killing of the two religious leaders who had been kidnapped for ransom.

Shia leader Dr Naqi Husain Shah was kidnapped in Lalamusa Sadar in 2009 and Mubarak Ahmed, an Ahmedi, in Toba Tek Singh in 2010.

He claimed that Afzal Fauji, who was dismissed from the armed forces, was the mastermind of a number of terrorist activities in Gujrat district over the past six years. He was allegedly involved in the killing of four policemen in an attack on a police post on March 12, 2012, and another policeman on Rehman Shaheed Road, Gujrat, in Jan, 2012.

Afzal Fauji and his accomplices were also wanted for the kidnapping of the son of a Gujrat-based Ahmedi businessman. However, they had to set free the boy after their vehicle was damaged in a road accident.

The DPO said three accomplices of Afzal Fauji — Hafiz Wajid, Nazim alias Kala and Ghulam Mustafa — were already in police custody.

He said police were conducting raids to arrest some more terrorists believed to be members of TTP’s Asmatullah Muawiya group. They were allegedly plotting an attack on police headquarters and some other important places in the district.

Published in Dawn December 20th , 2014