CTD arrests private college’s CEO for facilitating Safoora attack in Karachi

KARACHI: The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Sindh Police on Friday arrested chief executive officer of a private college in suspicion of abetting and facilitating the deadly Safoora attack that killed at least 47 people belonging to minority Ismaili community in May this year.

Speaking at a press conference here, In-charge CTD Raja Umar Khattab claimed that suspect Adil Masood Butt belong to Al Qaeda and was business partner of Saad Aziz – one of the key accused in the case, a graduate from the city’s prestigious IBA.

Khattab said Masood Butt, held from the city’s upscale Clifton neighbourhood on December 2, had been providing financial assistance to the suspected terrorists of the attack.

Five suspects – Saad Aziz, Muhammad Azhar Ishrat, Haafiz Nasir, Tahir Hussain Minhas and Asadur Rehman – are already under arrest for allegedly carrying out the terrorist attack and currently on judicial remand.

The suspects, besides killing at least 47 people of Ismaili community, are also allegedly involved in murder of T2F director Sabeen Mahmud, firing on US academic living in Karachi Debra Lobo in area of Ferozabad police station, magnet-fitted bomb attacks on Naval officers in Karachi, suicidal attack on Brig Basit of Rangers, grenade attacks on private schools in Nazimabad and North Nazimabad, bomb blast and target killing of Bohri community in Arambagh, North Nazimabad, Bahadurabad and in Hyderabad, bomb attacks on police mobile vans and killings of police personnel at various locations in the Sindh capital.

The CTD in-charge said Adil Masood Butt is an educated person and established the private college with the help of his friends in 1994. He said four suspicious people were also arrested with Masood.

He said women had also been playing key roles in terror activities, adding that no woman was arrested in connection with the attack thus far.

Two suspects were arrested from Mehmoodabad while two arrests were made in DHA and Baloch Colony, he said.

Khattab said a 90-day physical remand of the suspects has been secured from an anti-terrorism court (ATC) court in Karachi. The suspects had been propagating their ideology through writings for the past so many years.

He went on to say that Adil Masood also has affiliations with Tanzeem-e-Islami.