Four AQIS terrorists arrested in Karachi

KARACHI: Sindh’s Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) has arrested four members of the banned Al-Qaeda Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) in overnight raids, a top police official said on Friday.

Engineer Khalid Yousuf Bari, Saleem Ahmed, Mohammad Suleman Saeed and Adil Masood Butt, were apprehended in raids conducted by personnel of the anti-terror intelligence group of the CTD in Baloch Colony and Defence, said Raja Umer Khattab, in-charge of the Transnational Terrorists Intelligence Group (TTIG).

He told a news conference that the arrests of AQIS financiers and facilitators were made on information obtained during interrogation of terrorists caught earlier.

In a raid carried out in the Defence area, law enforcers arrested former PIA employee Engineer Khalid Yousuf Bari. During initial interrogation, Bari said he was earlier associated with the Tanzeem-e-Islami and after developing differences with the organisation, he joined Al-Qaeda’s Dr Akmal Waheed group.

Later, he also became associated with the other Al-Qaeda members like Umer Jalal (former Karachi Ameer), Abdullah Yousuf, (the mastermind of Safoora bus carnage) Saad Aziz alias Tun Tun, Mufti Tauseef, Saleem Ahmed, Suleman Saeed and Adil Masood Butt. The group used to facilitate members of the banned outfit financially and logistically.

Bari further disclosed that he got his electronics degree from the Dawood Engineering College and also worked for the Pakistan International Airlines but was later terminated. 

He said his wife was also associated with the group and she had established an organisation as “Idara-e-Al Zakirah Academy” at their residence and recruited 20 women who were financially strong. The women used to brainwash young women and they were also assigned the task of generating funds for the organisation through Zakat and donations, he added.

Khattab said police were working to bust the women’s racket and had formed a team for their arrests.

Acting on information received from Bari, he said, two more raids in Defence and Baloch Colony were made where Saleem Ahmed, Mohammad Suleman Saeed and Adil Masood Butt were taken into custody.

Raja Umer Khattab said Saleem Ahmed had been involved in such practices since the year 1992 as a fundraiser and used to collect funds at mosques. Before his arrest, he had been delivering speeches at different places to instigate people to join their organisation.

Along with him, Abdullah Yousuf, the AQIS chief and mastermind of the Safoora bus attack, used to join his sermons.

Ahmed had first met Farhan Yousuf, brother of Abdullah Yousuf, in 2007 and later in the year 2012-13 he became permanently associated with the group.

The suspects would contact each other on social media networking website, Skype, and whatever funds were generated by Farhan Yousuf were given to Ahmed.

Ahmed was also in close contact with Moeedul Islaam of Al-Qaeda, who was killed earlier in a Rangers raid in Gulistan-e-Jauhar.

Suleman Saeed used to deliver sermons and generate funds for the organisation. He is also a brother-in-law of Abdullah Yousuf and associated with the Darul Fanoon Trust.

He used to provide funds to the organisation. Moreover, the suspect was said to have been operating a library in Baloch Colony from where he used to deliver Jihadi literature until two years ago when the library was closed.

Raja Umer Khattab said Adil Masood Butt was a well-educated person and also financially strong.

Butt studied at the St Patrick School and St Paul School and later went for higher studies to the United States in 1987. There, he did his BBA at the Indiana University and also passed his MBA from New York’s Fordham University in 1992.

In the year 1994, he returned to Karachi and along with his friends established an institute “CAMS” (College of Accountancy and Management Science). The institute has now three branches in Karachi and about 2,000 students.

Butt had in the year 2000 joined Tanzeem-e-Islami and during his association with the organisation he met different people, including Sheebah Ahmed (who is in custody) and Khalid Yousuf Bari. Later, he left the organisation due to differences but remained in contact with Bari, who arranged his meeting with Dr Akaml Waheed. Then Butt started providing funds to Dr Akmal Waheed.

Later, Dr Akmal Waheed told Masood Butt to stop financing him as intelligence agencies were hunting for him. He also told him not to meet him but informed him that he should meet Al-Qaeda Karachi Ameer Umer Jalal and provide funds to him.

It was further disclosed by the suspect that after having a conversation with Jalal, the latter provided him his vehicle’s number and told him to meet him in the parking lot of NED University. Later, they started meeting regularly in the parking lot of the university.

Raja Umer Khattab said that the interrogation of eight terrorists of AQIS showed the group also had a strong women’s wing operated by Bari’s wife, and that the group used to provide USBs containing ISIS-related videos to young women. The wing included the wife of Saad Aziz and her mother-in-law and wife of Mufti Tauseef, he said.

The disclosures made by the terrorists confirmed that the organisation had a vast network within the educational institutions and was brainwashing students.

For this reason, he said, police had expanded their operation to educational institutions and would arrest those associated with this network, he said.