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Taliban in city: MQM

KARACHI: MQM MNAs have asked the president, prime minister, interior minister as well as the governor and Sindh chief minister to issue orders for the arrest of all Taliban in Karachi. “Save Karachi from Talibanisation by punishing all the Taliban,” a joint statement by MQM MNAs demanded. The MNAs said that the killing of five Taliban in an encounter in Karachi as well as the escape of another five from the scene was ample proof of MQM’s viewpoint against the Taliban. MQM’s legislators expressed concern that the statements of MQM chief Altaf Hussain were taken for granted while they also recalled that some quarters were accusing MQM of harassing the citizens by anti-Taliban propaganda. “Many high profile figures of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda have been arrested from the homes of some anti-MQM religious parties in Karachi,” read the statement. It also said that the Swat IDPs should be registered and they should not be allowed to leave their camps while adding that Al-Asif Square on Sohrab Goth is the hub of their activities. staff report
Daily Times: June 28,2009
Fake encounter of Baitullah Mehsud’s associates?
By Faraz Khan 

KARACHI: Three of the five alleged associates of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud, who were gunned down in an encounter with the police late on Friday night at Sohrab Goth, have been identified by their NICs.

Although the locals strongly deny the presence of the militants there and also claimed that no ‘encounter’ occurred in the area, which has raised several questions on the police’s claims and has also created grounds for an inquiry about the encounter. 

The bodies of the militants have been shifted to the Edhi morgue after legal formalities were completed at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. The police have registered six separate FIRs (421/09, 422/09, 423/09, 424/09, 425/09 and 426/09) on behalf of SHO Nasirul Hassan. The first FIR was registered under Section 353, 324/34, while the remaining FIRs were registered under Section 13-D. 

Interestingly, a heavy contingent of law enforcers participated in the operation but not a single police personnel sustained injuries and were able to gun down five people, who are believed to be the most trained militants, possessing the most sophisticated and lethal arms.

The three alleged terrorists were identified as Shah Hussain, son of Raj Khan, a resident of Wana, Shahid Khan, son of Bakht Marjan and Ahmed Ali, son of Ghulam Ali, a resident of Turbat, Balochistan while the two remaining so-called militants are yet to be identified.

The locals claim that the persons gunned down by the police were brought there from somewhere else and killed mercilessly, as the two-room compound declared as the hideout of Baitullah Mehsud’s associates actually remains in use of four watchmen who guard the land of Bantwa Memon Housing Society in two shifts. 

It is pertinent to mention here that two separate bloodstains were found in front of a small Masjid where police claimed to have killed the five people. 

The area is generally uninhabited with a few scattered compounds and is mostly in the use of contractors, garbage collectors and as warehouses for storage of machinery and construction material. “We heard gunfire but we have never seen any suspicious person here,” some locals claimed. 

It was an open space where the supposed encounter took place, in front of single-room mosque, adjacent to Bantwa Society’s guards’ room where two large dried bloodstains were found on the ground, showing that at least two people were killed.

No bullet shells were found on the ground and the walls of the mosque also showed no signs of a shoot-out, which showed that it was a one-sided encounter in which only the persons killed were fired upon by the police. 

Gadap Town SP Rao Anwaar, however, said that he had received information that some suspected terrorists belonging to Baitullah Mehsud’s network in Karachi were hiding there, on which a police party conducted a raid. About six or eight of their associates fled from the scene under the cover of darkness, he claimed. The SP claims to have recovered one Kalashnikov, one 9mm pistol and three TT pistols. “Three of the men have been identified while two still remain unidentified as no documents were recovered from them,” the SP added.