KARACHI: A policeman serving in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police was on Sunday arrested by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) for his alleged involvement in the smuggling of arms into Karachi.

CTD official Raja Umer Khattab said that acting on a tip-off, the intelligence wing of the organisation carried out a raid near KMC Sports Complex on Kashmir Road and “foiled a bid to supply illegal arms”.

He said that a suspect, identified as Azharuddin, was arrested and a schoolbag filled with small arms was recovered from his custody.

He said that the held suspect was a “serving policeman of the KP police and belongs to an inter-provincial gang of arms smugglers”.

The official said that the gang was involved in online selling of illegal weapons and its members supplied the same to Karachi and other parts of the country.

He said that suspect Azhar had smuggled illicit arms into Karachi before.

He worked for one Daniyal, who lived in KP, the official said, adding that Daniyal was the key accomplice of three arms dealers — Qadeer, Saddam and Nadeem — in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“These three dealers of arms have supplied a huge quantity of arms in Karachi from KP, he said.

The official claimed that some retired or those law enforcement personnel dismissed on disciplinary were involved in arms trafficking.

He said that usually buyers in Karachi or other parts of the country gave orders to any of the three arms dealers via social media platforms and people like Azhar delivered the same.

The CTD official said that the inspector general of Sindh police had set up an “arms trafficking and monitoring desk” to curb the illicit arms trade.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2024