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India-Pakistan

Two key terrorists held on 13th belong to JuA

2016-08-20

LAHORE - Two hardcore terrorists caught from the provincial capital on the night of August 13 were identified as members of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a deadly splinter of outlawed TTP, security officials told The Nation yesterday. However, other identification details and profiles of the two have not been disclosed by the security officials to blow other sleeper cells of this group. The two key terrorists of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) were caught in an intelligence-led operation on the night of August 13 by a counter-terror section of the main security agency of the military from Lahore’s Barkat Town in the limits of Shahdara Town after an extensive surveillance and tail operation. According to the security officials, the terrorist pair was a ‘master sleeper unit’ which was running other sleeper cells in Punjab to launch terror operations. They were planning to strike high-profile targets in major towns of the province, including the provincial metropolis, on Independence Day on the pattern of Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park terror activity. Members of the same gang carried out a deadly terror act in April this year in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, killing many people, including children and women. The JuA master sleeper unit had planned to target key sensitive government buildings and high-profile figures, said the security officials, divulging more details concerning initial investigations of the busted terrorists. Following leads of the two hardcore terrorists, the key security agency of the military has caught more suspected sleeper units from parts of Punjab, which could be used to launch a major terror operation in the province. However, extensive interrogation sessions of new busted cells would unveil more details with regard to the nature of assistance and facilitation to be provided by these cells, they added. Security officials declined to share any piece of information about the towns and cities from where the new sleeper cells were caught because of the upcoming follow-up operations to be launched in the light of the information divulged by these cells. An ISPR spokesman said on the night of Independence Day, 11 suspects, including two hardcore terrorists, were caught by security forces in a three-hour-long combing operation in Barkat Town near Shahdara. Cache of arms and ammunition was also recovered from the possession of the arrested. A threat alert of Nacta was issued on August 9 that TTP head Mullah Fazlullah had planned to attack border parade at Wagah near Lahore and Ganda Singh Border in Kasur district on August 13, 14 and 15. The TTP which is operating from Afghan soil had dispatched two suicide bombers to the two border points. Security officials, when asked about intelligence inputs, pointing towards Fazlullah gang terrorists targeting sensitive high-profile targets, said the command and control system of the terrorists has been destroyed as a result of the operation Zarb-e-Azb and Khyber 1 and 2. They added the terrorists operating from the Afghan soil were launching joint terror operations. Common needs and targets can bring the foes at one platform to carry on their business, said the security officials when asked Omer Khalid Khorasani leading JuA was an arch rival of TTP head Fazlullah. In September 2014, non-Mehusd chief of TTP, Mullah Fazlullah, expelled Mohmand Agency chief of TTP, Omar Khalid Khorasani, a member of defunct Ahrar-ul-Hind. Ahrar-ul-Hind, headed by Maulana Umar Qasmi (former leader in Lashkar-e-Jhangvi), was formed after TTP opened peace talks with the government. It later merged with Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a second splinter group that broke away from TTP in September 2014 and named Omar Khalid Khorasani as its commander. Both Qasmi and Khorasani were against the peace talks and believed the new TTP leadership under Mullah Fazlullah was not a true representative of Hakim Ullah Mehsud who was killed in a US drone strike in February 2014. Ahrar had announced they would no longer recognise or obey Mullah Fazlullah as their ameer.

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India-Pakistan

AuH warns of suicide attacks if NWA op continues

2014-07-30

[The Nation (Pak)] Ahrar-ul-Hind (AuH), a splinter group of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), the other day (Friday) threatened to stage suicide kabooms across the country if the government did not stop military operation against turbans in North Wazoo Agency. Weren't they doing that before the operation started? "We will target security forces all around the country. Our jacket wallahs have reached the major cities of the country. This time the focus of our attacks will be Punjab, as all policies are formulated there," said Asad Mansoor, a spokesperson for AuH, while talking to The Nation on phone from some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location. The AuH under the leadership of Maulana Umar Qasmi parted ways with TTP when the former initiated peace talks with the government earlier this year. "AuH had asked the leadership of TTP not to initiate any peace talks with the 'infidel government' until the Mujahideen did not take Dire Revenge" of the killing of Hakimullah Mehsud. They did not agree with us and the result is in front of all," he added. He further said that talks were under way between AuH and TTP and hoped that both the bully boy groups would soon reconcile, as both have a common enemy (security forces of Pakistain). According to the AuH, the ongoing military operation has resulted in the killings of innocent people and AuH 'will avenge the killings.' The AuH became active when the TTP leadership initiated peace talks with the government and during that period the group grabbed credit for different attacks against the security forces. "We had carried out attacks in different parts of the country like Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. and Quetta and we have the capability to reach our targets," warned Abu Mansoor. The spokesperson also revealed formation of a new central Shura of AuH under the leadership of Qasmi. "We have formed a new Shura (council) with members from all around the country," he added. The leading members of the shura are Maulana Habib-ul-Haq, popularly known as Nazim Sahib (Malakand division), Maulana Yaseen (Malakand division), Maulana Salih (Malakand Division), Maulana Hamza (Mohmand Agency), Maulana Naik Salam Haider (Orakzai Agency), Misbahuddin Sayyad (Kohat), and Abu Ibrahim (Punjab).

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