KARACHI: Police on Friday claimed to have arrested a “most wanted militant” associated with the outlawed Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and allegedly linked to the key characters of the 2015 Safoora bus carnage.

SSP West Omar Shahid Hamid told a press conference that Ahsan Mehsud aka Roshan was arrested in Mominabad and a huge quantity of explosives was also recovered from him.

He also told Dawn that the held suspect was an IT expert. He got a diploma in computer science from a private IT institute in Gulshan-i-Iqbal and then did graduation from a private college in Defence.

Suspect said to be an IT expert

His brother, Ali Mehsud aka Maaz, allegedly ran a militant network in Wadh, Balochistan and their uncle, Hasan Mehsud, was also an active AQIS member, he added.

The SSP said that the suspect was a close aide of Saad Aziz and Tahir alias Saeen, the militants who had been convicted of killing 47 members of the Shia Ismaili community including 18 women in the Safoora bus carnage case.

He said that the suspect along with Saad Aziz had gone to a shooting range in a famous club in Defence.

‘New cell’

As Saad Aziz, Tahir Saeen and others quit their parent organisation to join the militant Islamic State group, suspect Ahsan Mehsud remained associated with AQIS.

The SSP believed that he came to Karachi to form a new AQIS cell to target law enforcers and members of other communities on sectarian basis since previous militant networks in the city had been dismantled.

During initial questioning, the held suspect had disclosed his involvement in several acts of terrorism.

He was sent to Waziristan for training in 2011. He was then sent to Kuchlak, near Quetta, where he met with one Dr Saad and five to six other Arab militants.

He told investigators that in Balochistan, he also met with Abdul Qadir alias Haji Baloch, who gave him Rs150,000 to buy a laptop.

Haji Baloch and his son Zubair were involved in terrorism acts and kidnappings for ransom.

‘Bomb-making factory’

The SSP said his uncle, Hasan Mehsud, had turned his own house in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 10-A into a “bomb-making factory” after the death of his wife and sending his children to their native town.

“Trained militants of AQIS Saad Shamsi, Umer Bengali, Usman and others ran this bomb-making factory,” the SSP said.

His name was also included in the most wanted list of 2015 prepared by the Counter-Terrorism Department.

SSP Hamid disclosed that Ali Mehsud arranged a meeting of his brother, Ahsan with Tahir Saeen in Bahadurabad in Jan 2013. In February, 2013, he met with Kamran Gujjar and Tahir Saeen at a mosque inside a hospital on Stadium Road where they planned to target policemen.

In March 2013, the suspect along with his accomplices Kamran Gujjar and Tahir Saeen met at an eatery in Nazimabad where they decided to carry out surveillance of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan leader Dr Farooq Sattar.

In the same year, the suspect along with Saad Aziz, Tahir Saeen and others attacked a car showroom on Akbar Road in Saddar.

He along with his accomplices had gunned down a member of the Bohra community in Saddar and wounded several others in 2013.

Besides, he along with Tahir Saeen killed a policeman who was sitting in a police mobile at the Civic Centre.

He was also allegedly involved in targeted killing of policemen and Rangers in Karachi and Hyderabad.

The held suspect along with his accomplices had also kidnapped and killed an MQM worker, identified as Usman.

The SSP also claimed the suspect had a meeting with a young man on Burnes Road who later carried out a suicide attack on a Rangers official, Brigadier Basit, in Defence. The Rangers official, however, survived the attack.

Meanwhile, Sindh police chief A.D. Khowaja announced a Rs500,000 cash reward for the police team that arrested suspect Mehsud.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2018