report in The News, Sept 27, 2023
PESHAWAR: The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) arrested six terrorists in two separate operations in Peshawar and Mardan regions, officials said on Tuesday.
Officials of the CTD said that four terrorists associated with IS were arrested for their involvement in a number of terrorist incidents, including target killing of members of minority communities. The facilitators were identified as Muhammad Rahim, Shahid, Saleh Muhammad and Raz Muhammad.
The CTD officials said they were living in different parts of Peshawar for a long time and facilitated the IS terrorists in a number of attacks, including target killing of Sikhs, Christians, religious scholars, policemen and others, in the last many months.
Meanwhile, the deputy inspector general (DIG) CTD Imran Shahid told reporters that the Mardan region – II busted the gang that had made several calls to the locals and attacked houses with grenades and IEDs in the last many months.
The official said that two members of the gang Faizullah of Mohmand and Saeedullah, an Afghan living in Green Town Lahore, were arrested during the raids.
He added the forensic test of the cellular phones revealed that there were at least 10 WhatsApp groups being operated from Afghanistan to make extortion calls to the local well off people. During the investigation it was revealed that Faiz used to work for Bilal and Qasim, the Afghanistan-based commanders of the TTP.
The gang had made several calls to the locals for extortion while they were also involved in grenade and IED attacks that claimed the lives of two people.
The authorities have launched a help line for anyone receiving calls for extortion. They can call on 091111283283 to get help from the law enforcement agencies.
Recently, Law enforcement agencies arrested the facilitators of an extortion group active in the southern villages of Peshawar for the last few years. The member of the group identified as Alamgir has been arrested for providing information and details about the local well off people to commander Abdul Raziq in Afghanistan. The held terrorist told investigators that Abdul Raziq had made a call to him on WhatsApp from Afghanistan to provide details about the locals in the area.
He said he provided details and videos of houses of a number of people to the same person before he was arrested. The accused said he was also threatened whenever he refused to comply with his orders.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1113755-six-terrorists-arrested-in-separate-ctd-operations
