Five terrorists killed in Peshawar were highly trained: senior cops

PESHAWAR: Senior police and counter-terrorism officials on Monday said the five alleged terrorists killed in the recent operation in Hayatabad were highly trained whose next target was to attack the function of a political party in the coming days.

“It was an organized network of terrorists that carried out many attacks in the city. Apart from other incidents of terrorism, the same network was involved in the attack on the judge of the Peshawar High Court as the weapon used in it matched with the guns recovered during the operation in Hayatabad,” Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Qazi Jamilur Rehman, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Abdul Ghafoor Afridi and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations, Zahoor Babar Afridi told a joint press conference at Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines in Peshawar.

They argued that only members of a highly-trained network can engage the police and the army in an encounter for around 16 hours. Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police, Qamar Alam, and Lance Naik Zafar Iqbal were martyred while five alleged terrorists were killed in the long operation in Phase-VII of the posh Hayatabad locality last Tuesday. A soldier was wounded in the incident. Besides, two women a few other people also sustained injuries during the operation.

The action started at around 8 pm last Monday and concluded at around 12 pm on Tuesday. The house where the exchange of fire took place collapsed when the bomb disposal unit (BDU) detonated the explosives planted as booby trap to target senior officials and investigators.

However the Jamaat-e-Islami Khyber district head Shah Faisal Afridi held a press conference and many other people commented on the social media that those killed in the Hayatabad operation were innocent. They claimed these people were murdered after they clashed with a police officer holding a junior rank over some personal issue. They criticised the police force, saying there were cops like the ‘encounter specialist’ Rao Anwar in the Peshawar and KP Police too.

CCPO Qazi Jamilur Rehman said one of the slain men was an Afghan national who was brought to Pakistan to carry out a suicide attack. “Now the terrorists cross the border using passports. The terrorists used the CNIC of one Javed Afridi to get the house on rent and provided two guarantors as well while telling the owner that their family will be residing in it,” said Qazi Jamilur Rehman.

He said they have obtained many clues from the wounded terrorist Saeed who was captured during the Hayatabad operation. The CCPO continuedthat one of those killed, Amjad, belonged to Khyber district and was involved in many high profile incidents in Peshawar and other areas in the past many months. He added Amjad hadgone to Afghanistan five times and had travelled to the UAE and Greece as well from where he was deported. The officials paid tributes to the policemen and soldiers who took part in the Hayatabad operation.

Qazi Jamilur Rehman and Abdul Ghafoor Afridi in their joint press conference explained that when the police entered the house the terrorists opened fire on them, martyring ASI Qamar Alam. They added two soldiers were also injured during the exchange of firing and one of them later succumbed to his injuries at the hospital.

The officials said their plan was to apprehend the terrorists alive to find their linkages but they refused to surrender and attacked the law-enforcement and security forces. About destroying the house, the officials said they only wanted to safely defuse around 60 kgs of explosives planted as booby trap without causing harm to the local people and damage to nearby properties.