Karachi An anti-terrorism court remanded five alleged members of outlawed outfit Sipah-e-Mohammad in the custody of a team of the Special Investigation Unit and the CIA for 14 days. The court was told that Syed Furqan alias Baba Jee, Faisal Mehmood, Syed Abu Turab, Syed Riffat Hussain Jaffery and Azhar Hussain were arrested in a police raid on an office of a fake company in the Tariq Road area on April 25. The suspects are believed to be responsible for over a dozen recent sectarian killings in Karachi. Police sought their remand, saying that they wanted to investigate to know the whereabouts of absconding accomplices of the accused. On Friday, Karachi AIG Shahid Hayat told a press conference that a Special Investigation Unit team led by SSP Mohammad Farooq conducted the raid at a house near Jheel Park and arrested the five after a shootout. Foreign 9mm pistols were found on the arrested men. Two of their associates, Abbas Raza Zaidi and Raza, managed to escape. Hayat pointed out that the suspects had been running an office under the fake company name of FN Enterprises. “The office was used for meetings and planning target killings. Besides, they were using vehicles that were clear in police records. Their weapons were also licensed.” Syed Furqan was said to be the leader of the group. In 2001, he had worked with proclaimed offenders of the Sipah-e-Mohammad, including Raza Imam, Rashid, Suleman and Tanveer Abbas, to kill Maulana Yousuf Ludhanvi, the Imam of Jamia Farooqia, Shah Faisal, and scholars of Jamia Binoria, Guru Mandir. The arrested men disclosed that a man named Sajjad provided them with a monthly salary. They confessed to killing 13 people in the recent wave of sectarian killings. They also allegedly killed Mohammad Kashif, Abdul Talib and Saeed Ahmed in an attack at Al-Jannat Bakery in Gulshan-e-Iqbal; Shadab and Hamza in Mobina Town; Allama Syed Kashif Hussain in Gulshan-e-Iqbal; and Azhar Abbas Safdar, Mohammad
Aslam and Syed Ali Shah in Aziz Bhatti. They are also charged with murdering ASI Abdul Jabbar in Preedy; Saifullah, Mohammad Qureshi and Hassan in Gulshan-e-Iqbal; Mohammad Faisal in Sharifabad; Abid Mawiya and Sajjid Mawiya in Jauharabad; Aurangzeb and Abdul Wahid in Azizabad; and Jameelur Rehman in Yousuf Plaza. They also allegedly killed Hassan, Abdul Wahid and Nadir Ali in an attack in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. Meanwhile, a judicial magistrate of District East remanded two men, Altaf and Abbas, in the custody of Investigation Officer Zeeshan Awan of the FIA in power theft cases till April 29. The court was informed that the accused had caused a loss to the KESC by stealing electricity of more than Rs10million. The court heard that a cable used in an illegal electricity connection and other pieces of equipment were seized from the possession of the accused. The court allowed the physical remand of the two till April 29.
