Sindh police on Thursday thwarted a terrorism bid in the city as some 25 high-profile suspects were detained and heavy quantity of weapons were recovered in separate raids at various parts of the metropolis here.
According to sources, the police and rangers on tip-off conducted raids at Godhra colony and Umer Marvi Goth located in New Karachi Industrial area and taken some 22 suspects with weapons into custody.
They said the suspects, who mostly belonged to political and religious groups, were identified as Naveed Bangali, Shaukat Farooqi, Fahim Qadri, Javeed Siraiki, Junaid Bangali, Nadeem alias Magz, Kamil alias Kala, Mehboob alias Sirphira, Wajid alias Warsi, Yaqoob, Zafar, Asad, Imran, Kamran, Shareef, Nafees, Hussain, Nadeem and others. They said heavy contingent of the police and rangers cordoned off the aforesaid areas and detained these suspects during a door-to-door search and recovered weapons from them. The detained suspects were later moved to unknown place for further interrogation. Moreover, they said the targeted operation, which was kicked off on a tip-off, continued for more than three hours.
In another incident, the Special Investigation Team (SIT), South headed by SP Khurram Waris conducted raid at Shoaib Autos located in Baghdadi area and arrested three notorious gangsters including a cop and a son of policeman with weapons. They said the detained persons were identified as Kamran alias Kami, Shehbaz son of Shahab and Adnan. ASI Imran Gujar said the accused Kamran was policeman and deployed in Saeedabad Training Centre while the accused Shehbaz was the son of policeman. He said the detained persons during initial course of investigation admitted to have committed several heinous crimes including murders, robberies, kidnappings, extortions and others.
Moreover, ASI Imran said these persons were associated with the gangster Sheraz Merat, who also worked for Baba Ladla, a notorious Lyari gangster. Meanwhile, Mochko police claimed to have seized huge cache of arms and ammunitions from a vacant house located in Ittehad colony. DSP Baldia Abdul Haq said the police on the information raided at a vacant house located in Ittehad colony and recovered huge quantity of weapons including two rocket launchers, an anti-aircraft gun, 14 hand grenades, 100 short distance mortars and dozens of rounds of different calibers.
Moreover, he said although no arrest was made during the said raid, the Sindh police have foiled a terrorism bid in the city. He further said the police had seized the said smuggled weapons before being dispatched to the terrorists. Following the said recovery, high-ups from different law enforcement agencies rushed to the spot and inspected the weapons. Later, the case was registered against unknown culprits on the complaint of state. Further investigation was underway to nab the persons involved in this business.