University of Karachi blast suspects arrested

Karachi University blast | KU PhD degree

University of Karachi blast suspects arrested
Karachi, Jan 13: Three suspects allegedly involved in the last month's bomb blast on the Karachi University campus were on Wednesday arrested by the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Karachi police.

According to a statement issued by the SIU, the suspects were arrested after a brief shootout on Hub River Road within the remit of the Mauripur police station on Wednesday morning.

The suspects - Muhammad Umar alias Chhota, Hafeezullah alias Bilal and Syed Faaiz Ali - were former students of the varsity and associated with a "dissident group of the Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT),' which called itself Punjabi Mujahideen, it added.

The police claimed to have seized an AK-47 assault rifle, two shotguns, two .30-bore pistols and two hand grenades from them.

Regarding the blast on the KU campus, the SIU said that the suspects first made videos of the area in the university where they wanted to attack members of the Imamia Students Organisation. Then, it said, they did planning of the attack in Buffer Zone and on Dec 26 they planted an improvised explosive device in the varsity and covered it with grass. "On Dec 28, suspect Muhammad Umar exploded the bomb through a mobile phone," it added.

The SIU claimed that the suspects got militant training in Waziristan, Ugi and Miramshah.

The statement said that the suspects were part of a group called Punjabi Mujahideen, which was formed by some IJT activists in 2007 after developing differences with their party over the Jamaat-i-Islami's moderate policy with regard to the Waziristan issue.

It said that between 150 and 200 activists of the group wanted to follow the ideology of two brothers - Dr Akmal Waheed and Dr Arshad Waheed - who had been arrested for aiding militants. One of them, Dr Arshad, was killed in a drone attack in March 2008 in the country's tribal area.

It said that some other aides of the suspects - Zuhair Imtiaz Qudwai, Umar Imtiaz Qudwai, Arib Imtiaz Qudwai, Misbah Usmani, Muhammad Shabbir, Imran Nazir and Samiullah - had been killed in drone attacks in the tribal areas. Dawn