RAWALPINDI: A police commando and five members of a family were killed during a law enforcement raid on a suspected terrorist hideout in the village of Dhamial after midnight on Wednesday.

The intelligence-based operation – where Elite Force commando Irshad Ahmed was killed and three other personnel injured – was carried out in the Iqbal Town locality. Intelligence personnel took three men into custody, but it is yet to be determined whether they are linked to any militant organisations. They have been shifted to an undisclosed location for further investigation.

A spokesperson for the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) said that one of the men living in the house that was raided had been on CTD’s watch list and was associated with the ‘Asim Punjabi group’ of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) that is purported to have links with the self-styled Islamic State (IS).

Three other suspects picked up by intelligence agencies

Police sources said the operation was carried out in the light of intelligence reports that criminals linked with banned outfits had rented a house in Dhamial village. They said that police had entered the house, rounded up four men and were conducting a search of the premises when they encountered resistance.

Sources told Dawn that after the men had been rounded up, the women in the house ran to the upper storey and lobbed a grenade at the policemen standing outside. This was later confirmed by the regional police chief at a press conference.

Sub Inspector Irshad Ahmed and one of the suspects, Qasir Mustafa, were killed by a grenade and ASI Ibrar Ahmed and two constables, Mohsin Shah and Hafeezur Rehman, were injured.

Police and Rescue 1122 officials say the women also detonated a suicide jacket, which caused a fire in the house and claimed the lives of the two women and two children, aged 8 and 10.

However, Elite Force officials claimed that the women and children were killed when a grenade went off inside the house. The deceased women have been identified as Sumaira and Maliaka, wife and mother of the slain Qasir, respectively.

All the bodies, charred beyond recognition, were shifted to the DHQ hospital. The police were also unable to immediately confirm whether the bodies suffered phosphorous burns or had shrapnel wounds consistent with a grenade explosion.

Police said that the house in question was owned by Mohammad Ishtiaq, who had rented out the premises to Qasir Mustafa, a resident of the town of Hajira in Azad Kashmir, in August 2014.

Qasir, who police claimed was an active member of a terrorist group and was wanted by law enforcement agencies, rented the house through a schoolteacher, identified as Ms Shahnaz, from a private Montessori adjacent to the house.

Police sources said that intelligence authorities had requisitioned four sections of Elite Force commandoes for the raid, though no senior police officer was leading the operation.

Two 9mm pistols, two hand grenades and over 20 mobile SIM cards, four cell phones and an old Mitsubishi car bearing a Karachi registration number were seized by police.

Speaking to reporters after the funeral of the slain police commando, Regional Police Officer Mohammad Sultan Raja said that it was still too early to establish which terrorist group the men were linked to, adding that an investigation was underway.

M. Raja, a resident of the locality where the raid was conducted, told Dawn that he had just gone to bed when he heard a loud explosion followed by two smaller ones. The sound of gunfire continued for at least half an hour, he said, adding that this panicked several residents of the area.

“My parents did not allow me to go outside to see what was happening until things calmed down,” he said. He claimed that the residents of the house that was raided did not mingle with their neighbours.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2015

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