The Counter-Terrorism Department on Wednesday claimed to have arrested four suspects, including a government doctor, for their alleged involvement in helping and treating militants linked with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
CTD SSP Junaid Ahmed Shaikh said that the police arrested Dr Abdul Rehman, an orthopaedic surgeon at the Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi, and Mufti Malik Rizwan in Gulshan-i-Iqbal when they were collecting donations in a mosque.
“The held suspects were generating funds for the banned TTP,” he claimed. “They had got militancy training from Afghanistan.”
He said Rehman was a qualified doctor and an “active” TTP worker. He had completed his MBBS from a medical university in Bahawalpur and later he specialised in orthopaedics.
“He has remained involved in secretly treating wounded terrorists and was arrested after constant monitoring,” the SSP added.
Path to militancy
Dr Rehman originally hailed from Ghotki, where his father worked in a bank.
He studied up to intermediate in his home town and later got admission in the Quaid-i-Azam Medical College Bahawalpur where he completed his MBBS in 2001. He specialised in orthopaedic surgery in 2015 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan.
He told interrogators that he developed friendship with a college student, Shah Faisal, who was Jamaatud Dawa’s chief in his college. He started attending religious programmes at the medical college and after completing his degree he got “militancy training” on the insistence of Mr Faisal, claimed the SSP.
He told the CTD that his parents were not aware of his activities. He did house job at the Victoria Hospital in Bahawalpur. Subsequently, he passed the Sindh Public Service Commission exam and was appointed as government doctor in Khanpur in 2007.
After specialisation, he was posted at the orthopaedic ward of the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi.
He disclosed that he used to “officially” visit the Karachi Central Prison after a gap of two months for treatment of prisoners where in 2014 he met a TTP inmate, Amin Shirin, who was suffering from backache.
He developed friendship with him and “facilitated and provided logistics to militants in the prison”, claimed SSP Junaid.
He added that the police informed the hospital administration and the Sindh health department about his activities before his arrest.
Regarding suspect Mufti Rizwan, the CTD SSP said that he originally belonged to Mansehra and studied up to intermediate in Karachi. Later he studied at a famous seminary and memorised Quran. He also completed courses for religious scholar and mufti from the seminary in Karachi and started teaching.
He told the interrogators that he developed friendship with a seminary student who had links with the TTP in Orakzai Agency. He went there in 2009 and met with the TTP leadership. He said he did not inform his family about the real purpose of his visit.
In 2011, he went to South Waziristan for getting militancy training.
He told the interrogators that his elder brother, Zafar Iqbal, was also associated with the TTP and with his help he visited Afghanistan.
Mufti Rizwan informed the investigators that he remained the prayer leader at different mosques in the city’s posh areas, including Defence and Karsaz.
Separately, the CTD arrested two suspects — Hameedullah and Inam Dad — in Machhar Colony and recovered two pistols from them.
“They belong to the TTP’s Wali Mohammed group,” the CTD SSP said, adding that they were planning an attack when they were arrested on spy information.
‘MQM-H man’ held
In another action, the CTD arrested suspect Shafiquddin alias Kala, said to be associated with the Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi.
“Shafiq was involved in a deadly attack on a Rangers team in Korangi on June 6, in which one personnel was killed and two others injured,” said the SSP. “He belonged to the MQM-Haqiqi and was involved in 23 criminal cases in Korangi.”
