HYDERABAD: The Jamshoro police on Monday claimed to have arrested an alleged Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) activist involved in recent armed attacks on law enforcers in Karachi.

Jamshoro SSP Tariq Wilayat, who addressed a press conference in his office on Monday to share details of the arrest with the media, told Dawn by phone that Qamar Zaman, son of Ghausa Khan Mehsud, was picked up at a CNG filling station located between Nooriabad and Lunikot on Saturday.

“The suspect is believed to have actively facilitated some recent attacks on law enforcers in Karachi and we are trying to verify more information we have about his activities,” the SSP said.

According to the information collected by the police, he said, the suspect served as a TTP commander based in Badar Tiarazah village of South Waziristan until 2014 and moved to Jamshoro along with his family some seven/eight months ago during the military operation, Zarb-i-Azb. “His family is currently staying with his brother in Jamshoro,” the SSP said. The police officer said that the suspect was working as a watchman at the CNG station from where he was picked up. “A Kalashnikov, 20-25 metres of the wire usually used in producing improvised explosive device (IED) and around 12 kilos of explosive material have been seized from him,” the SSP claimed, alleging that he had been facilitating TTP terrorist activities in Karachi.

The suspect, he said, named Maharban, Jehangir Khan, Abdul Rehman aka Master and Syed Badshah as his associates. “Abdul Rehman and Jehangir Khan were perhaps killed by law enforcers in 2015 while Maharban and Syed Badshah have fled to Tank,” the SSP quoted the suspect as telling the police.

“[Qamar] Mehsud, admitting that he is associated with the TTP Shaharyar group, has disclosed to us that Syed Badshah had in the past served as TTP leader Baitullah Mehsud’s driver,” the SSP said.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2015