Summary LeJ Sindh emir Atta-ur-Rehman alias Naeem Bukhari obtained new CNIC in November 2014.
ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) – Terrorists have found a simple way to avoid arrests as several of them have reportedly obtained new Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) by publishing ‘change of name’ advertisements in the newspapers, sources told.
According to documents obtained by Dunya News, Lashkhar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) Sindh emir Atta-ur-Rehman alias Naeem Bukhari got change of name ad published in a newspaper on October 12, 2014 and later easily obtained a new CNIC from the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) on November 6.
In the newspaper advertisement, Atta-ur-Rehman Bukhari had changed his name to Ghulam Mohammad S/O Faqir Mohammad, however, his ID card number remained unchanged.
Afterwards, the wanted terrorist, who had Rs2 crore bounty on his head, kept roaming freely in Karachi.
He was mastermind behind attacks on slain Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Chaudhary Aslam, Justice Maqbool Baqir and the law enforcement personnel.
Bukhari had been on the run from the authorities and had been regularly changing disguises and locations in an attempt to evade the law.
The banned organization‘s head was listed as the 12th most wanted man in the “Red Book”, a compilation on the profiles of the most notorious criminals of Pakistan.
Bukhari’s arrest was finally confirmed in February 2016.
Insurgency in Pakistan began after the US-led invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan in 2001, which led to a spillover of militants across the border and a surge in recruitment for extremist groups.
The conflict reached new heights in 2007 when various militant factions came together under the umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban group, which was able to entrench itself in the country’s border tribal areas and make territorial gains.
Pakistan’s army launched its latest series of offensives in the region in 2014 in a bid to wipe out militant bases bring an end to the war, that has cost Pakistan thousands of lives.
Overall levels of violence have fallen, with 2015 seeing the fewest number of civilian and security forces casualties since the formation of the Pakistani Taliban.
But the militant group is still able to to carry out periodic attacks, particularly in the country’s northwest.
