Ansar-ul-Shariah members used codewords to communicate internally

Members of Ansar-ul-Shariah, the organisation found to be involved in the recent spate of terrorist activities in Karachi, used codewords to communicate between themselves to dodge arrest.

Ansar-ul-Shariah chief Dr Abdullah Hashmi, who was arrested in a raid in Karachi on Wednesday, revealed to the police that the place and time for meetings were decided using codewords.

If a member is to be summoned they are asked if they “would like to have tea”, with a refusal being a codeword for a confirmation for a meeting. Similarly places for meeting are also decided using specific codewords.

According to investigation authorities, the outfit considers Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri as its leader and its six members have received weapons training in Afghanistan.

The members were in contact with Al-Qaeda leader Abdullah Baloch for directions related to conducting terrorist activities in Karachi. Baloch, however, was dissatisfied over the group’s activities and was of the view that targeting only the police will not achieve the target of spreading terror.

Law enforcement authorities have nabbed another member after a series of arrests during raids in Multan and Quetta this week.

A member allegedly belonging to the group has been arrested from Karachi’s Sohrab Goth area. Saqib was arrested on the information provided by arrested members and is a university graduate and employee of a private company, sources told Geo News.

Earlier, the arrested leader of Ansarul Sharia revealed that they were a network of 10 to 15 young men qualified from different universities of Karachi and were trained in Afghanistan. The group started operating towards the end of 2015.

However, according to sources, the accused group came to the forefront when evidence was found and arrests were made after the attack on Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan leader Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan on Eid day

Early this week, three suspects from Multan, Quetta and Hyderabad were arrested by LEAs on suspicion of being members of the group.

The detained suspect, identified as Abdul Rehman alias Talha Ansari, was hiding in Multan's Delhi Gate area after fleeing from Karachi, where police have been actively conducting a crackdown against the group, sources said.

Sources said Ansari is the group's specialist in target killings and was called in for special assignments. He is also said to be a close associate of Sarosh Siddiqui, a senior leader of the group presently on the run from authorities.

One of the suspects, Mufti Habibullah, is a teacher at a Hyderabad seminary. Sources said authorities there have conducted a raid at his house and seized a laptop other materials.

Habibullah was nabbed by the agencies from Pishin in Balochistan.

The other suspect, Mushtaq, was nabbed from Quetta. He is said to be a teacher at the Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Science.