KARACHI - Law enforcement agencies have apprehended three female operatives allegedly associated with IS and Al-Qaeda and involved in terror-financing here in the country’s commercial hub.
Sources privy to the matter revealed that Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) busted the terror-financing wing being operated by the families, particularly by the wives of the suspects arrested in connection with the Safoora carnage which claimed at least 45 lives.
The CTD arrested the accused linked with attack on Ismailies bus and disclosed that the group, inspired by the IS, carried out the assault.
CTD had earlier arrested four highly educated accused including Saad Aziz.
On Friday, the department claimed to have arrested Adil Masood Butt and took him under 90 days preventive custody along with three other alleged facilitators.
Incharge CTD Raja Umar Khattab disclosed that as many as 20 women were associated with the local IS militants. Khattab declined the arrest of any women operatives while sources revealed that three wives of the arrested accused had also been arrested and police investigators were trying to probe the role of women operatives in the group. Sources privy to the matter revealed that the women wing used to collect donations for militants while police sought approval from the Home Department Sindh prior to disclose the arrest of women.
The wife and a mother-in-law of the Saad Aziz, a key suspect already arrested in Safoora bus attack, the wife of already arrested retired PIA engineer Khalid Yousuf Bari, a wife of Mufti Tauseef who is an absconder and some other women were operating a strong network. But Bari’s wife was playing vital role in operating the group.
“Bari’s wife also uses to run an organization - Idara al-Zakra Academy comprising 20 rich women who used to generate funds in the names of donations, Zakat and Khairat for the terror outfits,” explained CTD in-charge Raja Omar Khattab.
“The second responsibility of the women wing was to recruit the women in organisation through sermons and videos about the IS by distributing the USBs.” Apart from these, the CTD officials have also started keeping a close watch on various educational institutions in Karachi and entire Sindh as the group has roots in various colleges, universities and other educational insinuations.