KARACHI: Police’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on Monday claimed to have arrested five suspects involved in sectarian killings in the metropolis.

The suspects were identified as Syed Amir Husain Rizvi, Zainul Abideen, Faiziyab Ali, Syed Mohsin and Syed Mohammed Abbas, said CTD DIG Arif Hanif.

He told a press conference at the CTD offices in Civil Lines that the suspects were involved in the murder of religious scholars, doctors and prominent personalities on sectarian grounds and were planning to target ‘prominent religious scholars’ before Eidul Azha.

He said the suspects had confessed to killing Mufti Ghulam Akbar, Mufti Kamran Husain, Hafiz Mohammad Sajid, Dr Fazlur Rehman, Maulana Yasir and others.

Head of the CTD, additional inspector general of police, Dr Sanaullah Abbasi said the suspects had received training in a foreign country. “Karachi has become a battlefield for proxy wars waged by foreign countries which wanted to destabilise the country in general and Karachi in particular,” he said.

Dr Abbasi said the CTD had ‘spotted’ such elements who recruited people and sent them abroad for training. Syed Amir Husain Rizvi on MA in economics, was the mastermind of sectarian killings. He was born in Sukkur and later migrated to Karachi, he said.

He said that according to initial investigation, the gang of militants had killed Hafiz Sajid, owner of My Choice Bakery in Shah Faisal Colony, because the victim had remained a ‘guard’ of Maulana Aurangzeb Farooqi.

He said the suspects recently gunned down Mufti Kamran and Mufti Ghulam Akbar inside a seminary in Gulshan-i-Iqbal as they were affiliated with the banned Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat.

The suspects confessed to their involvement in the recent killing of a homeopathic doctor, Fazlur Rehman, in Landhi on sectarian grounds. Besides, they were also involved in the killing of Maulana Habibur Rehman, who was gunned down in Gulistan-i-Jauhar. The suspects ‘admitted’ they had targeted Maulana Mohammed Yasir in February 2015 in Gulistan-i-Jauhar, said the official.

The gang was involved in targeted killing of two brothers identified as Mohammad Tauseef and Mohammad Tanveer, who were reportedly ‘active’ members of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi in Khokhrapar.

In 2013, the gang gunned down Esa Baloch near the Russian consulate in Clifton on the suspicions he was affiliated with the Jundullah. Furthermore, the group targeted Qari Ghulam Sarwar outside a seminary in Block-19, F.B Area in the jurisdiction of the Samanabad police in ‘revenge’ for the murder of Allama Taqi Hadi in 2013, said the CTD head.

In 2012, the gang gunned down Mohammad Imran in New Karachi for his association with the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan.

Published in Dawn September 6th, 2016