KARACHI: Police’s Counter-Terrorism Department on Monday claimed to have arrested a suspected militant, said to be associated with a banned outfit, for his alleged involvement in targeted killings of seven members of a sectarian group after the 2012 Abbas Town bomb blast.

Acting on a tip-off, the CTD conducted a raid near the Fatah family park in North Nazimabad and arrested Ammad Ali alias Hammad and recovered a .30-bore pistol from his custody, said CTD official Shoaib Qureshi.

During interrogation, the suspect disclosed that after the bomb blast in Abbas Town, he joined a team led by one Farhat Abbas and got involved in several targeted killings on sectarian grounds.

The suspect along with his accomplices had opened indiscriminate fire on a restaurant in Scouts Colony of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, killing four seminary students — Umair, Abdul Shakoor, Mohammed Imran and Ansar — who were also activists of the banned Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) in 2012.

In the same year, the suspect and his accomplices killed another ASWJ worker, Salahuddin, near People’s Chowrangi. He was also involved in killing of a worker of banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan, Mohammed Atif, in Rizvia Society. He had also gunned down a prayer leader and worker of the ASWJ at People’s Chowrangi in 2012.

He was twice arrested on charges of murder, encounters and possessing illegal arms and was sent to jail, according to a CTD press release.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2020