A month after the two failed suicide blasts during Eid prayers in Shikarpur’s Khanpur tehsil last year, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Sindh Police wrote a letter to the Home Department and other relevant quarters, warning of more terrorist acts in upper Sindh in absence of a decisive operation in Wadh, Mastung and Jhal Magsi areas of Balochistan.
The CTD letter failed to attract the attention, but the kidnapping of two Chinese-language instructors from Quetta and their subsequent captivity in Mastung forced the security apparatus of the country to carry out a decisive operation.
The CTD, after intelligence gathering, had identified that a mix of different proscribed terrorist groups, including al Qaeda, Sipaha-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi – based in Wadh and Mastung areas of Balochistan – is posing a major security threat to the upper districts of Sindh, which are already much vulnerable due to mushroom growth of religious seminaries of the same school of thought.
A source, who shared details of the letter with this scribe in October 2016, also said that one wanted terrorist in Safoora bus shooting case was also hiding in Wadh area of Balochistan. “Abdul Qadir, aka Anwar, aka Haji Baloch, a prime suspect in Safoora case, is nephew of Khalid Shaikh Muhammad, an accused of World Trade Centre bombing on 9/11 and brother of Yousuf Ramzi,” the source said. On Sunday, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that the Pakistan Army, Light Commando Battalion (LCB), Special Service Group (SSG), Special Operation Wing (SOW) Balochistan and Frontier Corps (FC) Balochistan have successfully carried out an operation in Mastung, Balochistan.
“These caves were used as terror headquarter by terrorist of IS, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the TTP.”
According to reports, the intelligence-based operation was conducted in very rough and tough situation, as the topography and landscape of the area was difficult to access, whereas high standing rough mountains and narrow pathways make it difficult to move vehicles.
Layers of mountains make an airstrike difficult to achieve the target. The only option left was physical assault or troops marched to the location, cordoned off the radius, according to the ISPR.
Till now, reports confirmed 12+ terrorists are killed, cache of weapons and ammunition recovered and two Chinese hostages rescued. The killed terrorist includes top command of terrorist groups, which will definitely give a blow to the terrorist organisations. According to the sources, these terrorists had gathered there for a meeting.
Sources said some top leaders of the Islamic State’s Pakistan set-up were among those eliminated. Some sources said that the one captured alive was Haji Baloch, the man behind the Safoora bus shooting, which had left 46 men and women of the Ismaili community dead. The claim couldn’t be officially verified. But it is confirmed that those killed or arrested did not include Shafiq Mengal and Amanullah Zehri. It is worth mentioning that the CTD letter had not only suggested massive operation in Wadh, Mastung and Jhal Magsi but also made it clear that without hitting Shafiq Mengal and Amanullah Zehri, who are gathering different groups at one place, no success could be achieved.
“These groups, after mixing/merging, use expertise of each other,” a senior intelligence officer told this scribe, adding that hitting Mengal and Zehri was mandatory for peace.
Mengal and Zehri are at large, so the threat is there. Will the security and law enforcement agencies wait for yet another Chinese couple to be kidnapped or will they go after the terrorists hiding in Wadh and Jhal Magsi in order to completely root out the terrorist network?
Naimat Khan is a Karachi-based investigative journalist. He tweets at @Nkmalazai