CTD announces arrest of terrorist, traces network financing Daesh

Personnel of the Sindh Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on Wednesday announced the arrest of a terrorist whose name has been included in the Red Book of notified terrorists.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Omar Shahid Hamid, the CTD Sindh chief, said a most-wanted terrorist of a banned organisation, Zaytoon Brigade, who was already named in the Red Book compiled by the government, was arrested by a joint team of CTD officials and an intelligence agency.

The terrorist has been identified as Abbas Jafri and is said to be a close aide to another most-wanted terrorist Yawar Abbas. The raiding team also confiscated a weapon from his possession.

Investigators have claimed that Jafri received training from a neighbouring country in 2014 where he was taught medical and intelligence services. He was also allegedly involved in transporting youngsters to a neighbouring country for militancy training where the youths were brainwashed and trained to carry out terrorist activities in Pakistan.

The detained man had also been trained in dealing with automatic weapons during his stay at a training camp in the neighbouring country, said DIG Hamid. The weapon recovered weapon from him was sent to the forensic division in order to track the crimes committed by him with the weapon.

Jafri was also said to be involved in carrying out recce for other terrorists in order to facilitate terrorist activities in Karachi. A joint team consisting of personnel of the CTD Sindh and a federal intelligence agency has been formed to track down the accomplices of the arrested man. Further investigations are under way.

Terrorist network

The CTD of the Sindh police has traced a network of sending funds to outlawed Daesh in Pakistan, Syria and the United Kingdom.

In a letter to Sindh’s top cop, Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Maher, CTD DIG Omar Shahid Hamid said a suspected terrorist, Muhammad Umer bin Khalid Malik, was involved in providing funds to the proscribed terrorist organisation Daesh (ISIS) in Syria, through four suspected Pakistani women, all residents of Lahore but currently staying in Syria, via a bitcoins wallet account.

In light of the findings, mutual legal assistance from the governments of Syria and the United Kingdom was required for a smooth investigation process and it has therefore been requested that the authority concerned be approached for further necessary action.

On January 18, the CTD had arrested Umer bin Khalid, a final year student at the NED University who was allegedly involved in sending money to Daesh in Syria through the cryptocurrency bitcoin.

Addressing a press conference, DIG CTD Omar Shahid Hamid said that they had been carrying out investigations for quite some time into terror funding. The suspects used to send money to the Daesh women in Syria. DIG Hamid said that money was being deposited in Karachi and being sent to Syria by the suspect, Umer bin Khalid, and his accomplice Zia. He added that the CTD had carried out a forensic examination after Umer was arrested.

Meanwhile, CTD Incharge Raja Umar Khitab said that the suspect made a mobile phone account to get money. “He used to get money in this account and used to send it with an accomplice from Hyderabad.”

Khitab said Zia used to first convert the money into dollars, then buy bitcoins from it and send it to Syria. “The suspects have transferred close to Rs1 million within a year,” he said and added that jihadi families used Twitter accounts to demand funds.