Well educated militants behind high profile attacks - CM Sindh

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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I am not surprised with this at all. I have with my own eyes seen militants roaming around in universities giving dawat to students to join them in their training camps in summer vacations.

Well-educated militants behind high-profile terror attacks: CM

KARACHI: Arrested in connection with the Safoora Goth carnage and killing of rights activist Sabeen Mahmud, the “well-educated” criminals also have confessed to grenade attacks on schools, bomb attacks on police vans, a naval officer and a Rangers brigadier, a gun attack on an American educationist and targeted killing of police officials.

This was disclosed by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah while addressing a crowded press conference at CM House on Wednesday evening. He was accompanied by Speaker of the Sindh Assembly Agha Siraj Durrani, Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro and the provincial police chief.

About the arms and ammunition recovered from the militants, the chief minister said that the police seized three Kalashnikov rifles, seven 9mm rifles, five grenades, seven laptops, explosive material and terrorism literature.

Without naming any political or banned organisation involved in the terrorism activities, the chief minister said it would be premature to identify the group involved in the heinous crimes until a joint interrogation team completed its investigation.

However, he said, in recognition of outstanding performance of the police in solving such high-profile cases, he announced a cash award of Rs50 million for the DIG of the recently set-up anti-terrorist department Arif Hanif Khan and another official Raja Omar Khattab.

He said the officials were praiseworthy in that they had also detected the criminals and their facilitators behind the Shikarpur Imambargah blast and the killing of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leader Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro.

The chief minister said he would recommend their names for promotion in recognition of their performance.

Mr Shah said many more disclosures were expected as investigation was yet to be completed. He said he had asked to set up a JIT comprising the Sindh police and our other personnel who also had rendered valuable services and offered sacrifices, Rangers and other agencies officials who are member of the Sindh apex committee for verification of their offences.

He asked the police chief to file a report within a week after the formation of the JIT. Although the militants had already confessed to their involvement in terrorism activities, it would be appropriate that JIT be given the task to interrogate them as the cases were important and sensitive.

In reply to a question about involvement of the Indian intelligence agency RAW in the Safoora Goth bus tragedy, Mr Shah said RAW had been active right from Balochistan till Karachi, but at this stage he could not name the agency with confidence. It would only be determined after the JIT completed its work, he added.

In reply to a question, Mr Shah said that so far he had report about the four criminals but it could be possible that many others were also involved in the cases.

He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had congratulated him by phone over detection and arrest of the culprits and asked him to also appreciate the Sindh police.

Profiles

On the occasion, the chief minister read out the names of the militants, their profiles and the crimes they confessed to have committed.

Tahir Hussain Minhas alias Sain Nazir alias Zahid, alias Naveed alias Khalil, alias Shaukat and alias Mota-matriculate, who is the mastermind of the Safoora Goth carnage, has been involved in terror activities since 1998. A trained terrorist who has expertise in making bombs and using arms such as RPG-7 and Kalashnikov.

He had personally met Osama Bin Ladin and Aiman-uz-Zawahiri of Al Qaeda on several occasions.

Saad Aziz alias Tin Tin alias John, who is the mastermind of the attack on civil society representative Sabeen Mahmud, has done BBA from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi. Taking part in terrorist activities since 2009, Aziz is a trained militant with expertise in producing different types of literature. He provided funds for terror activities in the city.

Mohammad Azfar Ishrat alias Maajid is an engineer having passed out from the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology. Involved in terrorist activities since 2011, Ishrat is a trained terrorist who has expertise in making bombs and electronic circuits used as timers in such bombs.

Haafiz Nasir alias Yasir, who completed MA in Islamic Studies from Karachi University, has been involved in terrorist activities since 2013. A trained terrorist, Nasir has expertise in brainwashing and motivating people for ‘Jihadi’ activities.

The confessions made by these terrorists include the carnage of Safoora Goth, murder of Sabeen Mahmud in Defence, firing on American educationist Debra Lobo in the Ferozabad area, bomb attack on a naval officer and suicidal attack on Brig Basit of the Rangers, grenade attack on schools and throwing pamphlets in Nazimabad and North Nazimabad, bomb blast and targeted killings on the Bohri community in the area of Arambagh, North Nazimabad, Bahadurbad Karachi and Hyderabad, bomb attacks on police vans on M.A. Jinnah Road, Arambagh, Gulberg, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, NIPA Chowrangi, North Nazimabad and North Krachi and in the targeted killing of police officials in Gulistan-i-Jauhar, North Nazimabad, North Karachi, Shah Faisal Colony and Landhi.

Published in Dawn, May 21th, 2015

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Re: Well educated militants behind high profile attacks - CM Sindh

From IBA graduate to ‘terror suspect’? - Pakistan - DAWN.COM

KARACHI: The Sindh chief minister’s thunderbolt revelation yesterday that three “well-educated” students have been arrested for plotting recent terrorist attacks in Karachi sent shockwaves across the country.

As Mr Qaim Ali Shah disclosed the names of university graduates Saad Aziz, Mohammad Azfar Ishrat and Haafiz Nasir for being involved in heinous crimes, friends and former schoolmates took to Facebook and Twitter to express both horror and disbelief.

Saad Aziz - the ‘good kid’
That a student from one of Pakistan’s finest and most prestigious business schools could become a “trained militant” who “provides funds for terror activities” in the city is difficult to understand for many.

The assertion that Saad Aziz - a BBA graduate from the reputable Institute of Business Administration (IBA) - has confessed to masterminding the murder of rights activist Sabeen Mahmud has been met with scepticism by former schoolmates.

“I remember him being a good kid. He played tennis and football. He had a good sense of humour," says one of Aziz’s former high school students, requesting anonymity owing to the sensitivity of the case. He added that Aziz earlier studied at the Beaconhouse Schooling System, after which he went on to another elite institution, The Lyceum for his A’ Levels and eventually IBA for his undergraduate degree.

Another former schoolmate describes him as “a calm and a composed person”. “He used to hang out in the company of boys as well as girls,” he adds.

A hardworking student at IBA
A former IBA schoolmate of Aziz scoffed at the idea that the boy would have had time for training as a terrorist, owing to IBA’s rigorous schedule.

“The press release says he was involved in terrorist activities since 2009. He must have been 19 or 20 years old then and in his second year at IBA. I don’t know whether being in a terrorist organisation is a full time job or not, but IBA didn’t give time for us to be involved in anything. And he was there at university every day.”

Director Communication and Public Affairs at IBA, Huma Baqai also expresses alarm at the allegation.

“Saad Aziz from the batch of 2011 was our student, but it’s been four years since he left.We won’t deny that he was a student of IBA.”

“During his time here he was a good student with good grades. Even before IBA, he was associated with a good school, where he had good grades. No such tendency towards [terrorist] activities came to light during his time at IBA,” she continues.

“He was a good boy from a good family, a tax-paying family. It’s as much a surprise to us as it is to you that someone from such a family could get lured into such activities.”

‘He grew religious over time’
One former IBA student, however, said Aziz may have grown religious over time.

“I know he had become religious, grown a beard and started going on those four-month religious evangelical trips. This is what I know through mutual friends. Maybe he got involved with such people during his religious trips. But he didn’t look the type of person who would be a mass murderer. We are all very shocked by this news.”

He added that no one has been able to contact Aziz’ family.

"He was also out of touch with his university friends for a while now. Though he did bump into an IBA class fellow at the Karachi Literary Festival… "

According to a former schoolmate, Aziz is married and also has a child. He worked at The Cactus, a restaurant in Karachi’s Sindhi Muslim that serves a variety of Mexican and continental dishes. An employee at the restaurant told Dawn that the joint is nearly a year old and is owned by Aziz’s father, with his son holding an administrative position in the business venture.

“Saad is not like that [militant] at all …It is impossible. His character is not like that. He is a family man,” the schoolmate vouches.

According to the chief minister, Saad Aziz alias Tin Tin alias John, is the mastermind of the attack on Sabeen Mahmud and has been a part of terrorist activities since 2009. “Aziz is a trained militant with expertise in producing different types of literature. He provided funds for terror activities in the city,” the chief minister said.

While Shah did not disclose the organisation the arrested men belong to, CID Police Incharge, Raja Umar Khattab said it is a group inspired by Al Qaeda.

“It took 13 months to complete the investigations that lead us to this group,” Khattab said, “They are all from the same group.”

Given below are brief profiles of the other suspects arrested along with Saad Aziz:

Tahir Hussain
Tahir Hussain Minhas alias Sain Nazir alias Zahid, alias Naveed alias Khalil, alias Shaukat and alias Mota-matriculate, who is the mastermind of the Safoora Goth carnage, has been involved in terror activities since 1998. A trained terrorist who has expertise in making bombs and using arms such as RPG-7 and Kalashnikov.

He had personally met Osama Bin Ladin and Aiman-uz-Zawahiri of Al Qaeda on several occasions.

Azfar Ishrat
Mohammad Azfar Ishrat alias Maajid is an engineer having passed out from the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology. Involved in terrorist activities since 2011, Ishrat is a trained terrorist who has expertise in making bombs and electronic circuits used as timers in such bombs.

Haafiz Nasir
Haafiz Nasir alias Yasir, who completed MA in Islamic Studies from Karachi University, has been involved in terrorist activities since 2013. A trained terrorist, Nasir has expertise in brainwashing and motivating people for ‘Jihadi’ activities.

The confessions made by these terrorists include the carnage of Safoora Goth, murder of Sabeen Mahmud in Defence, firing on American educationist Debra Lobo in the Ferozabad area, bomb attack on a naval officer and suicidal attack on Brig Basit of the Rangers, grenade attack on schools and throwing pamphlets in Nazimabad and North Nazimabad, bomb blast and targeted killings on the Bohri community in the area of Arambagh, North Nazimabad, Bahadurbad Karachi and Hyderabad, bomb attacks on police vans on M.A. Jinnah Road, Arambagh, Gulberg, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, NIPA Chowrangi, North Nazimabad and North Krachi and in the targeted killing of police officials in Gulistan-i-Jauhar, North Nazimabad, North Karachi, Shah Faisal Colony and Landhi.

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Re: Well educated militants behind high profile attacks - CM Sindh

kiss ka yaqeen kia jaeee

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Re: Well educated militants behind high profile attacks - CM Sindh

Is it just me who is finding this story hard to believe.. Same sophisticated people, highly educated, confessed for not only Sabeen Mehmud’s killing but also merciless massacre of Safora chowrangi?? No other criminals involved :konfused:

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Re: Well educated militants behind high profile attacks - CM Sindh

^ master minds maybe, there would be others involved for sure.

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Re: Well educated militants behind high profile attacks - CM Sindh

Well considering how the local police works, its natural to have doubts on their claims that the suspects have confessed to pretty much every big crime happening in karachi for last few months. :konfused:

And now when they are in jail, i’m assuming it’ll be all one peaceful Eden for quite some time i guess.. :hmmm:

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Re: Well educated militants behind high profile attacks - CM Sindh

I’m guessing its not only me:

Weighing in: Confessions by torture?As sceptism grows over the assertions made by the chief minister, a security expert requesting that his name not be used for this story tells us there have been cases where men are falsely accused.“Sometimes when the police is under pressure to solve these cases, they arrest people and torture them to confess. At times, they will pick up the wrong guy and say he is the culprit without even checking his alibi,” he says. He adds that this is a dangerous trend that allows the real killers to roam free.“In this case, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) must do its job to ensure that they have arrested the criminals responsible for these acts. It must give the benefit if doubt to these suspects.”He also says that while the chief minister’s disclosure may be based on sound evidence, it seems that too many crimes have been clubbed under one umbrella and pinned on these three men.According to the chief minister, Saad Aziz alias Tin Tin alias John, is the mastermind of the attack on Sabeen Mahmud and has been a part of terrorist activities since 2009. “Aziz is a trained militant with expertise in producing different types of literature. He provided funds for terror activities in the city,” the chief minister said.While Shah did not disclose the organisation the arrested men belong to, CID Police Incharge, Raja Umar Khattab said it is a group inspired by Al Qaeda.“It took 13 months to complete the investigations that lead us to this group,” Khattab said, “They are all from the same group.”

A hardworking student at IBAA former IBA schoolmate of Aziz scoffed at the idea that the boy would have had time for training as a terrorist, owing to IBA’s rigorous schedule.“The press release says he was involved in terrorist activities since 2009. He must have been 19 or 20 years old then and in his second year at IBA. I don’t know whether being in a terrorist organisation is a full time job or not, but IBA didn’t give time for us to be involved in anything. And he was there at university every day.”Director Communication and Public Affairs at IBA, Huma Baqai also expresses alarm at the allegation.“Saad Aziz from the batch of 2011 was our student, but it’s been four years since he left. We won’t deny that he was a student of IBA.”“During his time here he was a good student with good grades. Even before IBA, he was associated with a good school, where he had good grades. No such tendency towards [terrorist] activities came to light during his time at IBA,” she continues.“He was a good boy from a good family, a tax-paying family. It’s as much a surprise to us as it is to you that someone from such a family could get lured into such activities.”

Wonders of BrainWash: Saad Aziz - IBA GRAD to a Terrorist

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Re: Well educated militants behind high profile attacks - CM Sindh

^If they r so high profile planners . Let’s hope no such high level cases repeat at least in near future.

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Re: Well educated militants behind high profile attacks - CM Sindh

Just bizarre…

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Re: Well educated militants behind high profile attacks - CM Sindh

I am definitely finding it hard to believe.

But knowing how “Dawah” people operate, it may not be entirely impossible. The way they approach people makes one even guilty of being born in this world full of sins.

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These might be the real killers
Pamphlets lead to arrest of Safoora killers: police

KARACHI: Pamphlets thrown after Safoora bloodshed around the ill-fated bus of Ismailis, became the hangman’s halter for the killers as they led to the arrest of the assassins, according to the investigations.
The police investigators, who are working around the clock to dig into the ‘Safoora Carnage’, have come up with new revelations.
The shooters in the pamphlets found at the Safoora crime scene, had expressed sympathy for the terrorists wiped out in a Kemari shootout, which actually led the investigators to these arrests .
Further probe revealed that brother of the prime suspect, Tahir Minhas, was gunned down in the above-mentioned police encounter headed by SSP Rao Anwaar.
The noose around theSafoora perpetrators was further tightened when the police found out that the same pamphlets were found from the site of Dr Debra Lobo shooting. Lobo, Vice Principal of the Jinnah Medical and Dental College, was shot and injured by unknown assailants in Ferozabad area on April 16. She survived the gunshot wounds after remaining in the hospital for a while.
IBA graduate Saad Aziz and Tahir Minhas were the main gunmen who shot Ismailis seated in the bus in their heads, according to the finding of the investigation.

Another accused Azhar Ishrat involved in the massacre accomplished his electronics engineering from Sir Syed University in 2004.
Tahir Minhas is a resident of North Nazimabad, block-M. --SAMAA

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Re: Well educated militants behind high profile attacks - CM Sindh

I would rather prefer an uneducated farmer working on forms honestly to earn his livelihood than these parhay likhe killer b@st@4ds so called educated middle class defined by MQM. A student of IBA, the precious institute in Karachi can kill 42 innocent people on a bus, there is something basically wrong with the teachers and institution itself. Pakistan does not need factories of educated terrorists.

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Re: Well educated militants behind high profile attacks - CM Sindh

Leave your ethnic hatred and prejudice behind. This is a problem of a poisonous mentality that has inflicted (Bin Laden) and poor alike, educated (Zawahiri, a surgeon) and uneducated alike regardless of ethnic and ligual background from Pathans, Punjabis to Mohajirs and others. This mentality is religious in nature. Call it Jihadi, Takfiri or whatever.

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Re: Well educated militants behind high profile attacks - CM Sindh

Agreed.

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Re: Well educated militants behind high profile attacks - CM Sindh

www.dawn.com/news/1183341

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Re: Well educated militants behind high profile attacks - CM Sindh

One of my seniors in university was killed in Kashmir, he was the commander of LET. His family didn’t know obviously as he kept them in dark. So this is not impossible.

Pakistani middle class has somehow become radicalized, and in some cases more susceptible to the propaganda of militants.

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Definitely more educated than Mr Shah…

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Damn.

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Re: Well educated militants behind high profile attacks - CM Sindh

What the hack are you talking about??? Saulat Mirza and many more of mqm belonged to that category of criminals.

MQM worker says Sector In-charge set Baldia Factory on fire

KARACHI: Detained Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) worker Umair Siddiqui has been involved in 120 target killings, Rangers asserted on Saturday. Siddiqui allegedly also confessed that MQM Sector In-charge Rehman Bhola was the man behind the deadly 2012 Baldia Town fire that consumed at least 258 factory workers.

Rangers personnel had presented a report to the Sindh High Court in February this year which revealed that the MQM had set the factory ablaze. The information had been disclosed by suspect Mohammad Rizwan Qureshi, an alleged worker of the MQM, on June 22, 2013 during joint investigation of the factory inferno.

In a press release issued today, the Rangers spokesperson said that Siddiqui, who was presented in an Anti-Terrorism Court today, confessed to being given the task of killing those that opposed the MQM.

The accused allegedly received orders to form a team of target killers which included 23 MQM members belonging to various units. The said team was involved in the killing of approximately 120 people that opposed the party.

The orders were issued by Hamad Siddiqui, a member of MQM’s Karachi Tanzeemi Committee, the press release stated.

Umair Siddiqui and his team of target killers also allegedly murdered the Rangers’ Lance Naik Shaukat. Siddiqui was also involved in the murders of former senator Faisal Raza Abidi’s guard and MQM representative Amir Khan’s nephew Sabihullah. Another MQM worker Tahir alias Nadeem SP was also murdered by the team, the press release said.

During interrogation, the suspect revealed that in 2008, MQM’s Deputy Convener Anees Qaim Khani held a meeting at Khurshid Memorial Hall to speed up target killings on a linguistic basis.

The suspect also revealed that he used a dealer in Quetta to procure weapons for MQM’s armed wing. In one instance he confessed to buying 40 Kalashnikovs, 8 LMGs, 1 rocket launcher, 6 G3s, 5 China rifles and 3 MGs.

He went on to claim that in February 2015 all sector in-charges were directed to return their extra weapons to Nine-Zero to prevent being found during raids. The said weapons were allegedly transferred from one area to another with the help of ambulances.

The suspect further confessed that approximately 250-300 target killers reside, or are in hiding, in the neighborhoods surrounding the MQM headquarters.

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Re: Well educated militants behind high profile attacks - CM Sindh

I will agree with Ali_Syed , not only conservative but also radical , deep radicalization is taking place , ordinary people are becoming hard core radical

I had an observation a few days back , I usually take Khan Coach from do talwar to my place , at random one day I counted … there were around 29 people in the Coach , 24 were bearded , and 16-17 had the Sharai beard that is the one where you shave you moustache as well

..and no it does not means anything except that ordinary people are at least symbolically changing themselves as religious people … it does not mean they are radical or extremist … you cannot find that out unless to talk to them …

but the outer change was visible … Period.

now coming to this Saad Aziz Guy … this guy killed Sabeen because she held a " Valentine Days " rally … !! at least that what been reported in the press.., so nothing to do with the Baluchistan thingum …

interestingly this guy was pretty liberal himself , had a girl friend and used to enjoy dancing ,..

“… For the first two years, he was a burger kid. He had girlfriends and we would have shisha at Indulge. He was funny, acted in plays and danced,” said a young man who was once a close friend. …”

Read yourself …

Saad Aziz confesses to Sabeen’s murder for holding Valentine’s Day rally - The Express Tribune