KARACHI (Dunya News) - Police on Tuesday announced the arrest of the ‘mastermind’ behind last month's deadly attack on a Rangers camp in Karachi, adding that the attackers were trained and directed from Afghanistan.
The attack took place on the night of June 27 when heavily armed militants stormed the Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) headquarters in Gulistan-i-Jauhar. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), three Rangers personnel were martyred and four others were injured. Security forces killed three attackers during the operation and captured a fourth, who was identified as an Afghan national.
Addressing a joint press conference with Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, Karachi City Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Irfan Bahadur said investigations had uncovered an Afghanistan-based network responsible for planning and coordinating the attack.
SSP Bahadur identified the mastermind as Qari Basheer alias Qari Habib, who was arrested by Rangers during a follow-up operation after the attack.
Lanjar also said, “All their (terrorists’) handlers were guiding them from Afghan soil that maximum damage should be done in the city and that Karachi’s peace be sabotaged by taking people hostage and public terrorism be spread.”
He added that after the incident, law enforcement agencies (LEAs) “discovered a network of facilitators involved in the attack through a comprehensive effort”.
Providing details on the attack, SSP Bahadur listed the “four phases” of carrying out the attack: “First of all, the planning and training of terrorists in Afghanistan. Secondly, four Afghan terrorists being taken from Afghanistan to Karachi.”
The SSP added that there was “backing from Afghanistan to run the facilitator group in Karachi”, while also giving them instructions “till the last stage from Afghanistan”.
“And lastly, the provision of weapons, ammunition and suicide jackets to terrorists,” he said.
The SSP identified the suicide bomber as Janaan, a resident of Afghanistan's Farah province. Another attacker, Bilal alias Hadi, was originally from Bajaur but had later moved to Kandahar. A third militant killed in the operation, Umer Farooq, was from Afghanistan's Kunar province, while the surviving suspect, Usman Sher Mohammad, is a resident of Nangarhar.
He further stated that senior leaders of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), referred to by the government as "Fitna al Khawarij," were involved in directing the operation. SSP Bahadur named Noor Wali, Sher Wali alias Mukhlisyar and TTP Shura member Saeed Shah as individuals who assigned Qari Basheer the responsibility for carrying out the attack.
In a video aired during the press conference of Qari Basheer, he could be heard saying that he met Saeed Shah in Afghanistan, who arranged his meeting with Noor Wali and Sher Wali. “They gave me a task for action against the police, army and Rangers in Karachi,” he said.
SSP Bahadur then recalled information revealed by held attacker Usman during his interrogation, who said they were trained in “various camps in Afghanistan” and then sent into Pakistan for the Rangers camp attack.
The police officer said Moulvi Tahir, an “important member” of the TTP, “chose Usman from Jamia Siddiqia in Kunar, Afghanistan” and handed him over to JuA’s Qari Abdul Manaan.
He added that the four attackers had received training at two camps in Nangarhar. A video of Usman's statement was also played during the press conference.
The SSP further said the four terrorists entered Pakistan after travelling through various parts of Afghanistan. Another video of Usman was shown, in which, he explained the route and process they followed.
According to the police official, the four terrorists travelled through different areas of Balochistan before reaching Hub, from where they were transported by car to Chamra Chowrangi.
He said the attackers were provided accommodation in a rented room in Hub by the mastermind, Qari Basheer.
"Qari Basheer and 13 other facilitators provided complete logistical support to the four terrorists, including their transportation, accommodation and arrangements to carry out the attack on the KTC Rangers camp," the SSP said.
He added that Qari Basheer, along with the principal facilitators, had already been arrested, noting that the key facilitators were all relatives of the mastermind.
The SSP then played a video of Qari Basheer, who detailed how the terrorists procured the ammunition and the suicide jacket. He could be heard saying that TTP’s Saeed Shah informed him that the jacket had reached Karachi, after which he picked it up from an unknown person.
Basheer further said that he also received eight hand grenades from an unknown person.
SSP Bahadur then stated that the group responsible for providing weapons was led by Rahim Afridi and six others. “The main smugglers in this group who provide weapons have been arrested.”
Recalling the “successful operation” by Rangers during which three of the four attackers were killed, the officer said three Kalashnikovs, several bullets, magazines and hand grenades were recovered from them.
The officer reiterated that Afghan territory was being used to plan and facilitate attacks against Pakistan, adding that militant groups continued to operate from safe havens across the border. He further stated that Afghan nationals were increasingly being recruited to carry out attacks inside Pakistan.
Pakistan has repeatedly called on the Taliban administration in Kabul to dismantle militant sanctuaries that are used to launch attacks inside the country. Pakistani officials have maintained that these concerns have not been adequately addressed.