Karachi [Pakistan], February 8 (ANI): A terror suspect was killed and five others were arrested during an operation in Karachi‘s Shah Latif Town on Monday.
The joint operation was conducted by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and officers of intelligence agencies. The exchange of fire continued for more than one hour, SAMAA News reported.
The law enforcement agencies were tipped off about the presence of terror suspects at a house in the area.
Suicide jackets, ball bearings, explosives have been seized from the house of the suspects were living in, according to Omar Shahid Hamid, CTD Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG).
However, the bomb disposal squad is currently inspecting the house, reported SAMAA News.
This comes after the National Counter-Terrorism Authority on February 3 warned of a “major terrorist activity” in Karachi. Terrorists are planning a VBIED attack on “an unspecified important government department” in the city in the near future, the authority said.
Authority said the miscreants have already conducted reconnaissance of the target and made necessary preparation. The alert has been addressed to the Sindh home secretary, provincial police chief, and Rangers director-general.
Peace in Kashmir possible if Pak’s terrorist activities are curtailed, says panel
Paris [France], February 8 (ANI): While discussing India’s fight against international terrorism spanning close to 40 years that began with the brutal killing of diplomat Ravindra Mhatre in Birmingham in 1984, senior journalist Akhlaq Ahmed Usmani remarked that Pakistan sponsored-terrorism had hampered the peace situation in Kashmir Valley.
During a webinar held on the 37th anniversary of Mhatre’s killing, the discussion panel was unanimous in their discussion that peace in Kashmir was a possibility only if Pakistan‘s actions were curtailed and if the international community played a proactive role in the process, reported Times Headline.
Speaking on Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, Usmani asserted that such actions were strictly un-Islamic and had to be discussed by the international community to fix accountability on the sponsors.
Shujaat Ali Qadri, President, Muslim Students Organisation (MSO), equated the killing of the diplomat as an “act of war against India” and highlighted the restraint India had been exercising for over three decades for the larger cause of regional peace.
He also called for reopening the investigation by British authorities, which could potentially establish stronger linkages of his murder with Pakistani authorities.
Veteran journalist Alain Chevalerias also opined that the killing had links going back to Pakistan that could not absolve it of the responsibility, while adding that this incidence set the stage for full-blown terrorism in the Kashmir Valley, according to Times Headline.
“It was high time that Kashmir needed to breathe in peace, but that would only happen if terrorism would end and the role of cross-border networks in fomenting the crisis would be brought to the books”, Chevalerias said.
Mhatre was an Assistant Commissioner of the Indian High Commission in Birmingham. He was kidnapped on February 3, 1984, by Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), a banned outfit in India.
The JKLF claimed responsibility and demanded a ransom of 1 million pounds. Later, his body was found three days later on February 6, 1984, at a sidestreet in Birmingham.
The diplomat was abducted and killed in an attempt to negotiate the release of terrorist Maqbool Bhat, founder of the JKLF. India refused to negotiate with the terrorists and Bhat was hanged to death on February 11, 1984, days after Mhatre’s body was found. (ANI)
