Punjab: Timeline (Terrorist Activities) -2015

Three special courts were formed on January 1 in accordance with the Protection of Pakistan Act (PPA) to preside over cases relating to terrorism,reports Daily Times. Five special courts are to be formed in total. The three courts have been formed in Peshawar (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Lahore (Punjab) and Quetta (Balochistan) in accordance with the PPA passed by parliament in order to curb rising militancy in the country. Judge Mukarrab Khan will head the special court in Lahore, Judge Zafar Khosa in Quetta and judge Anwar Ali Khan will preside over the court in Peshawar. As many as five special courts are to be formed whereas the next phase will focus on establishing special courts in Islamabad and Sindh. Read less...

The Lahore High Court's (LHC's) Rawalpindi Bench on January 5 acquitted four death row convicts who were earlier handed the death penalty for their involvement in the suicide attack at Shah-e-Najaf Imambargah in Rawalpindi in 2002, which left 19 people dead and 35 others injured, reports Dawn. The four convicts, identified as, Fazal Mohammad, Tahir Mehmood, Hafiz Naseer and Habibullah, were sentenced to death by an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Rawalpindi in 2004, following which they had filed an intra-court appeal. The defendants' counsel Babar pleaded in court today that there was no solid evidence which showed that the convicts were responsible for or associated with the attack on the Imambargah. After hearing the counsel's arguments, the court acquitted the convicts today. Read less...

Two convicted terrorists, identified as Ahmed Ali and Ghulam Shabir alias Fauji alias doctor, will be hanged at the New Central Jail in Multan District on January 5, reports Dawn. Prison officials have received the death warrants issued by Anti-Terrorism Courts (ATCs) after mercy petitions of the two had been rejected by the President. The convicts belong to banned organisations. According to details, Ahmed Ali had killed three men, Altaf Hussain, Mohammad Nasir and Mohammad Fiaz, on Railway Road in 1998. Ghulam Shabbir had killed Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Anwar Khan and his driver Ghulam Murtaza on the Bohar Gate Road on August 4, 2000. He was also reported to be involved in sectarian violence. He was sentenced to death by a Special ATC on June 21, 2002, which was later upheld by the Supreme Court. Read less...

The Punjab Government is amending a set of laws through ordinances to tie up loose ends that are allowing or can facilitate terrorist activities in the Province, reports Dawn. According to reliable sources, the Government had earlier decided to introduce bills in the Punjab Assembly to amend the laws. But it dropped the idea and was now going to amend these laws through ordinances in the next few days because of the prorogation of the Assembly Session, the sources said. The first law to be amended through an ordinance is the Punjab Arms Ordinance 1965. The government is going to enhance punishments for possessing, using, storing or displaying unlicensed or prohibited weapons and ammunition. Read less...

Two convicted men, Ahmed Ali alias Sheshnag and Ghulam Shabbir alias Fauji alias doctor, were hanged till death at the New Central Jail in Multan District on January 6 (today),reported Dawn. The latest executions have brought the number of those hanged until death to nine. Prison officials had already received the death warrants for the two men a couple of days ago. The warrants were issued by Anti-Terrorism Courts as mercy petitions of the convicts had been rejected by the President. Ali and Shabbir belonged to a banned organisation.Ahmed Ali was handed capital punishment for killing three men, Altaf Hussain, Mohammad Nasir and Mohammad Fiaz, and injuring Mohammad Pervez and Mohammad Siddique, on the Railway Road in 1998. Ghulam Shabbir had killed Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Anwar Khan and his driver Ghulam Murtaza on the Bohar Gate Road on August 4, 2000. Read less...

A blasphemy accused identified as 52-year-old Aabid Mehmood alias Aabid Kazzab, freed a few days ago, was shot dead in Ahatta area Taxila in Rawalpindi District of Punjab on January 7, reports Dawn. Unidentified assailants took him from his house in Ahatta area on January 6 and his bullet-riddled body was found in deserted area near Usman Khattar Railway Station on January 7. He had been shot in the chest and head from a close range. Police said it appeared to be a case of target killing. Aabid Mehmood owned a hotel and lived in Kamra village. He reportedly had claimed ‘prophethood’ in October 2011 and a case was registered against him under Section 295-C of CrPC on a complaint lodged by his son-in-law Sadaqat Ali. Aabid was sent to jail after his mental condition had been examined by a board of doctors at the Rawalpindi District Headquarters Hospital. He was released from Adiyala jail after about two years because of his mental and physical condition. Read less...

Akram Lahori, the Saalar-e-Aala (commander-in-chief) of the LeJ, will be executed on January 8 (today) in Lahore, reports Daily Times. He would be hanged at the Kot Lakhpat Jail. The jail has received death warrant of Lahori who was involved in the killing of an Iranian diplomat. Read less...

The Express Tribune reported on January 7 that Over 8,000 seminaries have neither been registered with the Ittehad-e-Tanzeemat-e-Madaris Pakistan (ITMP),an umbrella of five schools of thought, nor with the Ministry of Religious Affairs, raising a serious question over their curriculum’s legitimacy and their source of funding. Following the National Action Plan (NAP) committee’s recommendations, officials associated with provinces’ Auqaf departments are gathering data about madaris/makatib which have never been registered with the ITMP, Ministry Of Religious Affairs or with the Provincial Auqaf Departments.Around 8,249 seminaries which have enrolled 0.3 million students are not registered across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan, revealed officials, who will brief Federal Ministry of Interior next week. “This non-registered madaris/makatib did not fulfil the basic criteria set by the ministry of religious affairs,” a senior official said. Around 4,135 madaris or makatib are operating without getting proper registration from the designated authorities in KP, the official said, adding that some 2,411 seminaries are unregistered in Punjab, 1,406 in Sindh and 266 in Balochistan, he explained. At least 31 madaris are not registered in Islamabad where all seminaries are built on encroached land, he revealed and went on to say that even Jamia Hafsa, adjacent to Lal Mosque, also failed to fulfill basic requirements of registration. The official claimed that “Madaris operating in KP did not cooperate with us.”The ITMP officials also confirmed that some members of seminary boards – Barelvi, Ahle Hadith, Shia and Jamaat-e-Islami – affiliated with the Ittehad Tanzimat Madaris-e-Deeniya – had also refused to comply when it came to regulating their syllabus in the Pervez Musharraf era. The problem exists in non-registered seminaries where there is no check on literature being taught there, a cleric said on condition of anonymity. The Ministry of Religious Affairs registered 26,131 madaris by September 2014, according to official figures obtained by The Express Tribune. Around 14,768 seminaries are registered in Punjab, 7,118 in Sindh, 2,704 in Balochistan, 1,354 in KP and 187 in the Islamabad. Read less...

Two convicted cadres of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) were hanged at the central jail in Multan on January 7, the latest in a string of executions after the Government lifted a moratorium on the death penalty, reports Daily Times. “The two terrorists, Ahmed Ali and Ghulam Shabbir, were executed early this morning. Both were involved in murder cases and both belonged to Sipah-e-Sahaba,” said Saeedullah Gondal, an official at the central jail in Multan. He said Ali had been in jail for killing three people in a religious dispute in 1998, while Shabbir had been convicted of killing a Police officer and his driver in the same year. However, The News reported that they were belongs to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) outfit. Read less...

A former Pakistan Air Force (PAF) chief technician Khalid Mehmood, convicted in the former President General Pervez Musharraf attack case, has been executed in the Central Jail Adiala in the night of January 9, reports Dawn. Khalid Mehmood, along with four others, was awarded the death sentence on October 3, 2005 by the Field General Court Martial under the Army Act for his involvement in an assassination attempt on Pervez Musharraf on December 14, 2003 in Rawalpindi. He belonged to Chak No 372 Police Station of Dunyapur in the Lodhran District with the present address of Lava, near high school Talagang, Chakwal. Mehmood was shifted to Adiala Jail on October 27, 2010. Read less...

Eight persons were killed and 25 others wounded in a bomb blast on Imambargah (Shia place of worship) Aun Muhammad Rizvi at Chittian Hattian locality of Rawalpindi city of Punjab on January 9, reports The News. The blast occurred at a time when a Mehfil-e-Milad to celebrate the birth of the holy Prophet (Peace Be upon Him) was in progress at the Imambargah. The Police earlier claimed it was a suicide attack but later the Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Rawalpindi Akhtar Laleka said that blast was not a suicide attack. Around 4-5 kilo explosive were planted in a Nullah outside the Imambargah. Read less...

The Police claimed to have arrested two members of a banned religious outfit in Nankana Sahib town of same District on January 9, reports The News. District Police Officer (DPO) Kamran Yousaf said that they got formation that suspicious people visited some houses at Chak 18. He said that a team headed by Sadar SHO Zulfiqar Ahmad Virk raided the houses and arrested Naeem and Zahid, while their three accomplices managed to escape. The DPO said that they had also recovered a huge quantity of weapons with hundreds of live bullets. He said that they had also seized Jehadi literature. Read less...

The Jamaat al-Ahrar, faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), on January 10, claimed responsibility for the bomb blast on Imambargah (Shia place of worship) Aun Muhammad Rizvi at Chittian Hattian locality of Rawalpindi city of Punjab on January 9, which killed eight persons and injured 25 others, reports Dawn. “We claim responsibility of the attack on the Imambargah and vow to continue such attacks,” spokesman of Jamaat al-Ahrar, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said in an email. Read less...

Seven terrorists were executed in different jails of Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Karachi and Sukkur on January 13, reports The News. Three militants of Lashkar-eJhangvi (LeJ) Shahid Hanif alias Mufti Shahid, Muhammad Talha and Khalil Ahmed alias Hassan Jan were executed in Central Prisons in Sukkur. They were condemned to death by an anti-terrorism court after they were found guilty of killing Syed Zafar Hussain Zaidi, director laboratories of Ministry of Defense (MoD) in Karachi in July 2001. Two terrorists involved in former President General (Retired) Pervez Musharraf assassination bid case were executed at District Jail Faisalabad. The terrorists were identified as ex-employee of Pakistan Air Force Nawazish Ali and Mushtaq. Zulfikar Ali was executed at the Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi. He was associated with Al-Qaeda. He was convicted for killing two Policemen near the US Consulate General in Karachi. He was convicted by Anti-terrorism Court in Karachi after being booked in 2003 in FIR no 35/03 registered in Karachi under Sections 353, 302, 324, 397 and 7-ATA. Behram Khan, the killer of a lawyer, was hanged at Karachi Central Jail in the presence of judicial magistrate. Behram Khan, along with Police Sub-Inspector (SI) Pir Bux, had killed Advocate Ashraf in the courtroom of Sindh High Court in 2003 and they were arrested while trying to escape. Anti-terrorism Court in Karachi had sentenced Behram to death while SI Pir Bux was sentenced to life in prison for abetting the crime. Read less...

The Federal Minister of Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on January 14 that the number of proscribed organisations actively engaged in terrorism and extremism in Punjab alone had reached 95, reports Dawn. During the briefing on the status of implementation of the National Action Plan to counter terrorism and extremism, Chaudhry Nisar said that law-enforcement agencies were proactively monitoring madrassah to check the spread of terrorist ideology in the country. While an official statement released after the meeting did not include the names of the banned organisations in question, the new number was substantially greater than the total number of organisations listed as banned in the national security policy document the Government put out in early 2014. Read less...

The Intelligence Agencies on January 14 arrested nine suspected militants, including a couple linked with al Qaeda, during crackdowns in different areas of Faisalabad District, reports Daily Times. According to sources the al Qaeda-linked couple, identified as Rizwan and Maria, were involved in a hand grenade attack on a shrine in Gujranwala District on an unspecified date. Read less...

A Government school in Rajgarh area of Lahore District received a threat note pasted on its main entrance on January 15, creating panic among teachers, students and their parents, reports Daily Times. According to details, unidentified persons pasted a threat note on the main gate of Government Junior Model Girls School Rajgarh. Parents who were visiting school for dropping their children read the note and informed the school administration. Officials of District Administration and police reached the spot immediately. Police sent the letter to the forensic laboratory for further investigation. However, the classes began normally after the school was cleared. Read less...

Lahore High Court (lLHC) Division Bench on January 15 dismissed a withdrawn petition of a condemned prisoner, Ikramul Haq, alias Lahori, challenging his death warrants, reports Dawn. A Faisalabad Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) had reissued the warrants after the convict failed to prove reconciliation with the complainant party. The convict’s counsel pleaded in the petition that the complainant party wanted to record statement in the High Court. However, he said, the trial court reissued the death warrants of the convict and execution was fixed for January 17, 2015. Read less...

Jama'at-e-Islami (JI) Chief Sirajul Haq while addressing a rally on Multan Road on January 16 warned that the anti-Islam policies of the west could plunge the world into the third world war, reports The News. He said that the respect of the Holy Prophet was an essential part of a Muslim’s faith. Thousand of faithful across the country came on roads to express their anguish over the fresh publication of blasphemous caricatures by a French Weekly and vowed to render every sacrifice to safeguard the sanctity of the Holy Prophet. The call for the protest had been given by Haq. He announced million marches in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi on January 23, 205, in continuation of the protest. He also stressed upon Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to call for an emergency meeting of the Muslim rulers to lodge protest with the French Government on this score and to stress upon the United Nations to frame laws ensuring respect for all the Prophets of Allah and all the revealed books. Read less...

Three Shia men, identified as lawyer Fayyaz Hussain Shah (40), and his two nephews Mir Ghazi Shah (20) and Mir Hamza Shah (22) were shot dead while they were returning home from a religious gathering in Rawalpindi District on January 16, reports The Express Tribune. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) 'spokesperson' Muhammad Khorasani claimed responsibility for the attack. He said that Shah was active in his Shia community and was also a local leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Read less...

Ikramul Haq, a convicted terrorist belonging to Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), was hanged till death at Kot Lakhpat Central Jail in provincial capital Lahore on January 17 (today), reported Dawn. He was accused of killing a Shia man, identified as Nayyar Abbas, at an Imambargah in Shorkot area of Jhang District in 2001. Haq was scheduled to be hung earlier on January 8, 2014 but the execution was delayed at the eleventh hour after an agreement between the plaintiff and the defendant was produced before the magistrate. Later, the condemned prisoner and the plaintiff parties were asked to approach the Anti-Terrorism Court for confirmation of the agreement, pardoning Haq. Out of eight family members of the deceased Abbas, only his two brothers and a sister appeared before the judge, hence the court refused to accept the agreement and upheld its decision of death sentence to the convict. So far, a total of 19 terrorists have been hanged. These include, a total of seven in the year 2014 (two on December 19, four on December 21, one on December 30). At least 12 terrorists have been hanged so far in 2015 (two on January 7, seven on January 13, two on January 15 and one on January 17). Read less...

Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the Chief of Jama’at-ud-Dawa (JuD), and the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), during a rally in Lahore on January 18 while urging Muslims across the world to boycott French commodities in protest against the publication of sacrilegious caricatures by French magazine Charlie Hebdo said that the United Nations (UN) should declare blasphemy as terrorism and pass an international law against it, reports The Express Tribune. “If it fails to do so, Muslim countries should sever ties with it and form a Muslim Union.” “Blasphemy is the worst form of terrorism in the world. It is terrorism against 1.5 billion Muslims. There will be no peace if international laws are not made against blasphemy,” threatened Saeed. Read less...

A Police constable, identified as Shahid, was injured when a terror bid was foiled by intercepting a suspected suicide bomber travelling in a bus on Main G.T. Road near Rawalpindi District on January 20, reports Dawn. The bus that was en route to Rawalpindi from Peshawar was stopped and one of the bus passengers was taken into custody by Police on suspicion. Upon trying to escape, the suspect was fired at by Police in response to which he hurled a hand-grenade, injuring the Police. However, earlier reports said the suspect blew himself up after being intercepted at the Sardar checkpost in Wah Garden. Read less...

A suicide bomber, identified as Mohammad Asif, denoted his vest when Security Forces (SFs) arrested him while he was travelling in a bus on Main Grand Trunk (GT) Road near Rawalpindi District on January 20, reports Dawn. Earlier it was reported that a Police constable, identified as Shahid, was injured while foiling the terror bid. Officials of Law Enforcement Agencies and Police on January 21 were trying to unscramble a code which was found scribbled on a piece of paper recovered from the pocket of the suicide bomber. The man got off a bus and blew himself up with a hand grenade when the bus was stopped at a Police picket on GT Road near Mughal Garden in Wah. The piece of paper with the number 21110 written on it was recovered from him along with PKR 7,000 in cash, a pair of sunglasses and two pieces of clothing. A Police investigator said that officials from different agencies have joined hands with police to crack this code. They believe that this number could be a code for a possible target - a place or a person. The investigator said that the officials are trying to solve the mystery with the help of information which has already been gathered from terrorists in Police custody. Asif hailed from Fatehjang tehsil (revenue unit) of Attock District. Police sources said some of his family members had been picked up and shifted to an undisclosed location for interrogation. Police are also interrogating the bus driver, a resident of Charsadda District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and his Afghan assistant. Read less...

As part of the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism, hate material seized by Rawalpindi District Police reveals that various schools of thought promote hatred against one another and stand divided over many issues, reported Dawn on January 20 (today). According to Police sources, in the seized books, sects attack one another and also disagree over the celebration of the birth anniversary of the Prophet Muhammad. “Out of the four books seized in Attock, one presented the views of Deobandis against Barelvis, another spoke against Ahle Tashie (Shia) and the remaining two provocatively called for jihad,” District Police Officer (DPO) Israr Ahmed Abbasi said. All those who were found selling hate material were arrested, he added. Read less...

The Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) Police on January 20 arrested a veiled woman, identified as Maria Sultan, from outside Kotwali CIA office in Lahore for her alleged links with al Qaeda, reports Dawn. Police sources claimed the woman was a proclaimed offender and was involved in a suicide attack at Gujranwala Police Office. They said three CIA Police Inspectors while leaving the office found her taking snaps of the office. During her interrogation she confessed to taking the snaps of other Police Offices as she was planning to avenge her husband’s death who was killed in a suicide attack. The Government had announced PKR 500,000 as a head money on her arrest. Read less...

The Punjab Government on January 20 promulgated an Ordinance which bans glorification of terrorists and their outfits at any forum and in the media, reports Dawn. It regulates manufacture or sale of uniforms of law-enforcement agencies. The Punjab Maintenance of Public Order (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015, which amends the identical law of 1960, is part of the legal reform measures the Government is taking to curb terrorism. The ordinance promulgated says: “A person shall not, by words spoken or written, use any formal forum to support terrorism or terrorists, or attempt to create sympathy for any terrorist or terrorist organisation, or to oppose action of Pakistan army, air or naval force, Police or Rangers against any terrorist or terrorist organisation." Read less...

According to Intelligence sources the SFs on January 21 a local 'commander' of the Islamic State (IS), identified as Yousuf al-Salafi, as well as his two accomplices involved in recruiting and sending fighters to Syria from provincial capital Lahore, reported Dawn. Three unnamed intelligence sources said the man, Yousaf al-Salafi, was arrested in the eastern city of Lahore and confessed during interrogation that he represented IS in Pakistan. “Al-Salafi is a Pakistani Syrian who reached Pakistan through Turkey five months ago,” said one source. “He crossed into Turkey from Syria and was caught there. Somehow he managed to escape and reached Pakistan to establish IS.” The source said one of his accomplices, Hafiz Tayyab, was a prayer leader in Lahore and was involved in recruiting Pakistanis and sending them to fight alongside Islamic State in Syria, charging IS about USD 600 per person. Read less...

Jama'at-ud-Dawa (JuD) 'chief' Hafiz Muhammad Saeed on January 23 led Friday prayers and delivered a fiery sermon followed by a protest by hundreds of his supporters on Lake Road near Chauburji Chowk in provincial capita Lahore, reports The Express Tribune. Saeed delivered a speech against India, America, Israel and France. He also condemned the Government of Pakistan for freezing his bank account and for banning the JuD and the Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF). Instead of taking action against the protesters, the Police provided them security. Read less...

Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) on January 23 arrested two terror suspects from the Manga Mandi area in Lahore District on the information of an arrested terror suspect Yousuf al-Salafi, who is directly linked with the Islamic State (Daish), and shifted them to an unidentified location for interrogation, reports Dawn. One of the agencies engaged in the operation showed that the officials, who had taken IS 'commander' Yousuf into custody from the Shahdara area on January 21, 2015, along with his accomplices, Qari Tayyab and Dr Fahad, arrested his two more accomplices following information provided by him. The raids were conducted by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Police to track down the suspects associated with Daish. A Police source said that hate literature, CDs and other material had been seized from their possessions Read less...

The preliminary investigation on January 23 revealed that Kosar Ali, the suicide bomber who blew himself up at a Police picket on Main Grand Trunk (GT) Road near Rawalpindi District on January 20, 2014, had been a student at the Lal Masjid seminary, reports Dawn. Police and other LEA's detained seven suspects, including the two brothers of the suicide bomber, on January 22, 2015 in connection with the incident. The detained suspects were taken to an undisclosed location for further investigation. Read less...

Lahore Police have so far arrested 329 suspects for violating three recently promulgated ordinances by the Punjab Government in January 2015 and booked 673 others for violating the Foreigners Act 1946 and Code of Criminal Procedures 1898 to implement the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism, reports Dawn on January 28 (today). The Police are facing difficulties in judicial trials and conviction processes as people, arrested and booked in connection with Punjab Information of Temporary Residence Ordinance, Punjab Sound Systems (Regulation) Ordinance and Arms Ordinance (amendment) Ordinance, have secured their bails from local courts. According to an unnamed source, Police are not getting encouraging response from the courts which are not welcoming summary trials of the arrested suspects because of legal hiccups and lack of appraise. He said all the arrested suspects for carrying illegal arms have got their bails secured. Read less...

An anti-terrorism court in Lahore on January 30 awarded death sentence on 47 counts to three terrorists involved in attacking buildings of the Police Emergency Service (15) and an intelligence agency, reports Dawn. The court also awarded life imprisonment to each convict and imposed a collective fine of PKR 25.35 million. The Civil Lines police had registered a case against Abid Akram, Sarfraz and Shabbir for attacking the offices of the Police and intelligence agency on May 27, 2009. At least 26 personnel were killed and 337 injured in the attack. Read less...