Karachi police seek JIT to interrogate MQM-London’s ‘RAW agent’

Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mushtaq Ahmed Mahar has been requested to form a joint interrogation team (JIT) to question a Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London worker arrested earlier by police on charges of working for the Indian spy agency RAW.

According to a letter moved by Karachi’s additional IGP’s office, the SSP SIU/CIA vide his office letter dated March 24, 2020, through the DIG CIA has requested the constitution of a JIT for the interrogation of Shahid alias Muttahida, Majid Khan and Adil Ansari booked in an FIR (No. 69/2020 4/5) filed under the Explosive Act read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, and another FIR (No. 70/2020) lodged under sections 23-I(A)/32 of SAA at the PS SIU Karachi.

The letter said: “It is, therefore, requested that the Home Department, Government of Sindh, may kindly be moved to constitute a Joint Interrogation Team for thorough interrogation of above named accused.”

On March 19, the Karachi police claimed to have foiled a major potential terrorism plot as they busted a local network of India’s Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), allegedly operated by militants affiliated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London (MQM-L).

The city police chief said that there had been reports about RAW’s involvement in terrorism in Karachi, about the MQM-L running the intelligence agency’s local network and about the likelihood of them carrying out a major terror activity in the metropolis at any time.

“We found during our investigations that the MQM-L terrorist who received militancy training in India is the ringleader of the RAW network in Karachi,” Additional Inspector General of Police Ghulam Nabi Memon said while addressing a news conference at the Karachi Police Office in Saddar on March 19.

“The ringleader had been involved in terrorism here with his MQM-L colleagues on RAW’s instructions. He had been in touch with former APMSO [All Pakistan Muttahida Students Organisation] chairman Mehmood Siddiqui, who has been in India for the past many years on RAW’s payroll, and used to despatch funds through hawala-hundi for carrying out terror activities in Karachi,” he said. The group had also been keeping in touch with the MQM-L’s notorious terrorist Safdar Baqri in Canada, he added.

The city police chief said that the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) had been tasked with finding and arresting the suspects, adding that the officials conducted raids in different parts of the city, including Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Federal B Area and Korangi, and arrested Shahid, alias Muttahida, an MQM-L militant heading RAW’s operations in Karachi, and two of his accomplices, namely Majid and Adil Ansari.

Memon said that since the group had been involved in financing terrorism as well as international murder, the government had been asked to form a joint investigation team, adding that a cash reward had also been recommended for the SIU team for saving Karachi from a major terrorism incident.

The police chief also claimed to have seized a huge cache of weapons and ammunition, including hand grenades, mortars and launchers, as well as fuses and electronic detonators.