Pat Dollard

Tweet

HYDERABAD: Police have arrested a would-be suicide bomber belonging to the banned Jihadi outfit Tanzeem-ul-Jihad with 14-kg explosive material and a suicide vest, from a local hotel here on Saturday, foiling the militants’ plan to carry out terrorist attacks on the polling day in the district.

“Muhammad Islam alias Mujahid Islam of the Tanzeem-ul-Jihad, resident of Tando Adam, District Sanghar, has been arrested from a local hotel at 1:30 am, along with weapons and explosives,” District Police Officer (DPO), Hyderabad, Imran Shaukat, said while addressing a news conference at his office. He said that the accused was arrested on a tip off and the police had recovered 14-kg explosive material, one rifle, one pistol, several bullets, one toy pistol, 14 fake arms licenses, two fake driving licenses, two cell phones and Jihadi literature from his possession. He said that the accused was staying at a local hotel without a national identity card (NIC).

The DPO said: “The Cantonment Police ASP Asif Iqbal and Latifabad SPO Ayub Durrani led the commando operation inside the hotel.”

The accused was a ‘facilitator’ and had links to the Northern Areas, the DPO said and added that the accused had planned target killings of religious and political leaders. He, however, avoided disclosing the names of personalities who were on the hit list of the accused.

To a question, the DPO denied that the accused was arrested earlier, adding this arrest had no link with the past arrests.

He said more teams had been formed to arrest the accomplices of the accused, adding that the hotel administration was also being interrogated.

When contacted, the hotel manager said the accused was asked to show his NIC but he wanted to see the room, therefore, they had shown him the room and suddenly the police arrived around 3:30 am on Saturday morning.

“I was not present in the hotel at that time. The arrested person didn’t bring his belongings to the hotel. The police have taken the record of the hotel with them,” the manager told The News.

The manager said usually they gave rooms after checking the NICs and the accused said his NIC was present in his car, which was parked outside the hotel but he was arrested by the police, the manager added.

Meanwhile, sources said the police had actually arrested three suspects but the DPO confirmed the arrest of only one accused.