KARACHI: A suspected commander of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (Swat), who was allegedly ‘planning to sabotage ongoing census exercise’, was arrested on Saturday.

The suspect, Abdul Ahad, had been involved in targeting a college and attacks on a provincial minister and security forces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to the Counter-Terrorism Department of police, which arrested him during a raid on his hideout at Purani Sabzi Mandi.

The militant, originally hailing from Buner district, had destroyed a government college in Buner through a remote-controlled device in 2008, said CTD SSP Naveed Ahmed Nisar Khowaja while addressing a press conference.

During initial investigations, the officer added, Abdul Ahad also ‘confessed’ that he, along with 100 other Taliban militants, attacked a camp of Frontier Corps in Buner district and occupied it after a fierce battle. SSP Khowaja also said that the suspect, along with his other accomplices, had made an attempt on the life of KP Education Minister Sardar Husain Babak in 2011. Fourteen people, including two policemen, had been wounded in the gun attack though the minister had remained unhurt, the officer said.

The held militant also claimed to have slit the throat of an ‘informer’ of the FC in Buner district, said SSP Khowaja. He told the police interrogators that he, along with a number of Taliban militants, had shifted to Afghanistan after the Swat operation and later came to Karachi, the senior officer added.

SSP Khowaja said Abdul Ahad further disclosed that the TTP Swat along with militants linked with Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi were becoming more ‘active’ to carry out terror attacks in the country.

SSP Khowaja said the held militant was wanted by the KP police in several terror acts and he had been declared absconder by local courts there.

Suspect killed in ‘encounter’

A suspect was shot dead in an ‘encounter’ while his five accomplices managed to escape in Orangi Town in the early hours of Saturday, police said.

Mominabad SHO Sabir Khattak said six suspects riding on two motorcycles were signalled to stop for identification in Meraj-un-Nabi Colony of Orangi Town. Instead of proving their identity, they sped up as police chased them, he said. One of the riders, however, fell from the motorbike and fired at the police. In the ensuing encounter, he sustained gunshot wounds and was arrested at around 4am. A 30-bore pistol and three mobile phones were seized from his custody before the suspect was rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival, the police officer said.

The identity of the suspect could not be ascertained, the SHO added.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2017