Identities of Target Killers in Karachi - By Ansar Abbasi (The News)

Courtesy: Daily "The News", 11 April 2011

Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: An official report containing details of the joint interrogation reports of all key government agencies relating to the 26 accused arrested and probed in 2010 in Karachi’s target killing cases, shows the majority belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)
while the rest claimed their association with the MQM-Haqqiqi, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Muhammad, Awami National Party (ANP) and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan.

The report is horrific and contains the statements, confessions, revelations and crime history of the arrested alleged target killers, including those having South African connections. The disclosures of these high profile suspects cause a shiver in the spine as each and every page of the voluminous report is full of tales where a large number of people were killed ruthlessly in a callous manner and merely on the whims and wishes of a few.

The report, nothing less than a bombshell, has been reportedly prepared by the Sindh Home Department and provided to the president, prime minister, Interior Ministry and all concerned at the federal and Sindh government.

The report did not talk of even a single alleged target killer having any connection or affiliation with the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), whose recently removed Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfikar Mirza has been the boss of the police and other agencies in the province.

Mirza has been accusing the MQM, both directly and indirectly, of having been involved in the target killings, whereas Altaf Hussain’s party has always rejected these allegations and instead blamed the people’s peace committees of the PPP and ANP of alleged involvement in target killings and extortion.

According to an official source, the 26 accused were arrested in target killing cases in a span of a few weeks and after Karachi saw all time high number of such killings last year. The source said that the kind of information revealed by these accused was nothing less than a bombshell and required immediate attention of all concerned to bring peace in Karachi by curbing such criminal groups there.

When asked as to why not even a single PPP man was reflected in the list of 26, the source said that the reason was that not even a single PPP affiliated man was caught in the target killing case.

The confessions of most of the accused before the joint interrogation teams show them to be hardened criminals and trained killers. Most of them have criminal histories. They have been jailed in the past but were released and continued with their alleged crimes.

Though no comment was made in the report about the failure of the police, prosecution and the intelligence agencies, the mere reading of the details of the crimes reflect on serious inefficiency of the law enforcing agencies and the criminal justice system. It shows that not only the hardened criminals were released because of lack of evidence but also let loose without any surveillance of the intelligence agencies and police to continue committing crime without any fear and in a reckless manner.

The joint interrogation teams, which probed these accused, include the representatives of the ISI, IB, police, Special Branch, CID and Military Intelligence. In the coming few days, The News would run stories on the confessions and disclosures of these accused as reflected in the joint investigation reports. Disclosures by some of the accused contain serious allegations against some of the political entities and such revelations would be shared with the readers.

The official document reflects on three categories of target killings. The first category includes crimes to have been committed on the alleged order of the high command of a particular party or group. The second category of crime includes such criminals, who for their vested interest and in violation of the party or group’s discipline carry out such killings. The third category includes small group of criminals, belonging to a particular sectarian or ethnic group, who because of their own conviction select their targets and kill them.

The list of accused arrested in target killings whose joint interrogations had been held in 2010 includes a total of 26 suspects. Fourteen out of these 26 are alleged to be associated with the MQM, three are linked with the MQM-H, five with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, two with SSP and one each with the ANP and Sipah-e-Muhammad.

Those allegedly having affiliation with the MQM include Habib-ur-Rehman, s/o Majeed-ur-Rehman, Murad Akhtar Siddiqui, s/o Minhaj-uddin Siddique, Sultan alias Couple, s/o Muhammad Suleman, Jamal Abdul Nasir alias Commando, Tahir Ali alias Topchi, Imran alias Irfan Lamba, s/o S Mehboob Ali, Shariq Nafees, alias Sheri, s/o Muhammad Nafees Sheikh, Atif Rasheed, alias Ghora, s/o Abdul Rasheed, Ikram, alias Akoo, s/o Habibullah, Anus Bin Haroon, s/o Syed Abu Asad, Syed Abu Irfan, alias Urfi, s/o Syed Abu Asad, Muhammad Ishtiaq, alias Suleman, alias Police Wala, Muhammad Yaseen, s/o Abdul Haq, and Rizwan Mehmood, alias Khalid Chamber, s/o Mehmood Khan.

The five alleged suspects involved in target killing cases belonging to the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi include Waseem Ahmed, alias Barudi, s/o Samiullah, Muhammad Abdullah, alias Taimor, s/o M Riaz Shahid, Hafiz Ikhlaq, s/o Pervaiz Akhtar, Naseem Haider, alias Feron, s/o Ghulam Haider, and Asif Rasheed, alias Dumba, s/o Haroon Rashid.

The three accused associated with MQM-H are Maqbool Hussain, s/o Ali Hassan, Azhar Ali, alias Uncle, alias Baboo, s/o Abdul Rehman, and Abdul Aziz Ansari, s/o Abdul Naseer Ansari. The accused belonging to the SSP are Nasir Qadri, s/o A Qadeer, and Muhammad Shoaib, s/o Muhammad Ali. The ANP’s accused is Mashwar Nawaz, alias Mashwari, s/o Anwar Khan, whereas Sipah-e-Muhammad’s accused is Syed Ali Mehdi, alias Suleman, s/o Syed Jaffar Ali.
Except the MQM affiliated Murad Akhtar Siddiqui, s/o Minhaj-uddin Siddiqui, almost all others accused have been graded as “black” for their alleged involvement in heinous crimes like killing, looting, etc. Murad Siddiqui has been graded as “white” as he has never been involved in any crime in the past and was even found innocent in the murder case in which he was apprehended.
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