KARACHI: The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on Wednesday claimed to have arrested a suspect for his alleged involvement in targeted killings of six policemen.

“A police team arrested Shan Sabir alias Don in Korangi Industrial Area,” said CTD SSP Parvez Ahmed Chandio. “The held suspect belongs to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London but in order to save himself he recently joined the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP).”

He said that the suspect was a close associate of another held suspect, Raees alias Mama.

“He is a dangerous killer who has been involved in targeted killings of policemen, encounters with police, murders, arson acts, extortion and was wanted by Korangi Industrial Area, Awami Colony and Landhi police stations,” added the officer.

He said he was declared as an absconder by courts concerned.

Police say the suspect originally belonged to MQM-L but joined PSP to save his skin

In 2014, the held suspect along with his other accomplices killed three policemen in an armed attack on a police mobile. Later in the same year, the suspect along with his other accomplices fired at a police mobile van in Landhi killing three more policemen, the SSP alleged.

In 2010, the suspect had also carried out arson acts in Korangi.

JIT says suspect Mama killed 50 persons

Raees alias Mama, a former sector in-charge of Korangi, was arrested in April 2018 for his alleged involvement in targeted killings, kidnappings, china-cutting, extortion and fundraising for the MQM.

According to the report of a joint investigation team, Mama was a graduate and joined the MQM when he was a student at a Landhi college.

Initially, he collected donations and installed party banners, posters and flags but in 2008 Hammad Siddiqui, the then in-charge of MQM’s Karachi Tanzeemi Committee, made him the sector in-charge of Korangi and selected him as the “target killer team leader”.

Mama told the JIT that he killed over 50 persons, according to the JIT report, which also stated that he along with his accomplices blocked the Baloch Colony bridge on May 12, 2007 and fired on rallies killing six persons.

The JIT report stated that on Aug 19, 2011 a clash had erupted between Mama, his accomplices and workers of a Sindhi nationalist party over tearing of Altaf Hussain’s pictures.

Later, he along with his 20 other armed accomplices attacked a Marwat coach in which four policemen and one passenger got killed while 26 other policemen were hurt. His two accomplices were also killed in the exchange of fire, the JIT said.

He told the JIT about the murder of two workers of the Awami National Party in Pehalwan Goth in 2010.

Killings over plots in PNT Colony

He said he also gunned down four workers of a Sindhi nationalist party in 2010 “due to dispute on plots” in PNT Colony.

He said he was also involved in killing of a prayer leader in Korangi in 2011.

According to the JIT, he was also involved in firing on a Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi rally on Shaheed-i-Millat Road in Nov 2011 in which four workers and a woman passer-by were killed.

In another incident on May 10, 2013, Raees Mama told JIT members that he and his accomplices gunned down five more MQM-H workers in Landhi-6 in reaction to the killing of their party worker.

The JIT report said that he also killed Assistant Director of Karachi Development Authority Abdul Jabbar Mangi on Sept 27, 2013 as he had demolished a house “built on china-cutting plots” in Korangi.

The JIT said that the suspect told them that he did not know the motive behind several targeted killings as these were carried out on the directives of party leaders.

He allegedly told the JIT that he had earned Rs15 million by occupying and selling china-cutting plots in Korangi.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2018