HYDERABAD: Police have arrested five members of a nationalist group accused of attacking Rangers, sabotaging the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and planning to hit certain facilities of the banned Jamaatud Dawa (JuD), apparently through funding from India.

Police claimed that the suspects were members of the Sindhudesh Revolutionary Arm (SRA), a nationalist group fighting for an independent Sindh ­­— referred to as Sindhudesh in local parlance.

Hyderabad DIG Javed Alam Odho, SSP Pir Mohammad Shah and CIA in-charge Aslam Langah held a joint news conference at the police headquarters and said that they had been working to arrest the group’s memebrs, especially in the aftermath of recent ‘terrorist’ activities in the Hyderabad region.

“These suspects and their masters were funded by India to sabotage CPEC, attack Rangers and hit JuD assets, like its welfare wing Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation,” said the DIG.

He identified the arrested suspects as Muzaffar Hussain Nan­graj, Murtaza Abro, Shakeel Ghan­ghro, Rafaqat Jarwar and Aarib Soomro.

Suspects are accused of planning to attack certain facilities of the banned JuD and sabotage the CPEC

SSP Shah said the SRA was led by Asghar Shah, who had earlier worked with the banned Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM) of Shafi Burfat, then parted ways with JSSM and joined Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (Arisar). He quit the organisation later to form the SRA. The SSP Shah said: “Asghar Shah and his accomplice Munir Abro have both travelled to India as they are the ideologues of the group. Besides them, Mashooq Qambrani, Nawab Jat, Amjad Shah, Asif Shah, Sarwan Shah and Sarvech Nohani are on the run.”

DIG Odho said police had arrested the five men in an encounter that took place on Thursday night in Aliabad near Hatri. The police seized explosives and weapons from them, he said, adding that the Sindh police inspector general has announced a reward of Rs0.5m for the police team that had nabbed the suspects.

“Asghar Shah was trained in Kohlu, Balochistan,” SSP Shah said, adding that Muzaffar had travelled to India and stayed there for 21 days for training.

DIG Odho said the suspects were accused of carrying out an attack on the Rohri Bypass in which some Chinese nationals were injured, and an explosion on the railway track in Mehrabpur on March 23, 2017. He said they had planted a bomb outside the Mehran Engineering University in Jamshoro on Nov 8, 2017. They also exploded an IED on Jan 29 in Qasimabad to attack a Rangers’ vehicle, but a rag picker lost his life when he touched the IED.

One of the suspects, Muzaffar Hussain Nangraj, was brought before journalists. He told them that he had received training in India. “We were facilitated by Shadi Khan [Soomro] and Aarib Soomro to reach India

for 20 to 25 days. Asghar Shah told us to go to India through Nawab Jat,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2018