Associate of Ansarul Shariah member nabbed near Karachi airport

KARACHI: A security agency arrested a suspected terrorist in an operation near the airport on  Monday. 

Sources said they nabbed Abu Saleh, a close associate of Ansarul Shariah member Sarosh Siddiqui, from a car as he was travelling towards to airport to get out of Karachi. 

Security officials recovered one laptop, two mobile phones and a hard disk from Saleh, informed sources. 

Siddiqui has been on the run for a week ever since he escaped a police raid in the city's Kaneez Fatima Society following the Eid-day attack on Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Khawaja Izharul Hassan. 

Police believe Ansarul Shariah was involved in the Eid-day attack as well as recent attacks on police in the city. 

Since last Monday's raid in which Siddiqui escaped, law enforcing agencies across the country have all but busted the terrorist group's network. 

Authorities nab Ansarul Shariah members from Multan, Quetta

Members of group were in contact with Daesh before formation of Ansarul Shariah

The raids and arrests have uncovered an unprecedented involvement of educated persons in terrorism. 

After Monday's raid, in which a police official was also killed, Malir SSP Rao Anwar had said that Abdul Karim Sarosh Siddiqui is a senior commander of Ansarul Shariah. He claimed Siddiqui was the mastermind of the Eid-day assassination attempt on Hassan and was enrolled in the applied physics department of Karachi University.

Ansarul Shariah

The group has been involved in multiple terrorism incidents in Karachi and Mastung, security sources have said.

Ansarul Shariah Pakistan chief arrested by security forces: sources

Suspected terrorists had recorded all terrorist activities carried out in the metropolis.

The group first made headlines in Karachi in April this year in the targeted killing of a retired army colonel.

Police officials also believe the group is behind several attacks on police officials in Karachi in the past few months and an IED blast targeting security forces in Mastung.

The outfit was not inspired by Daesh's ideology, but instead, it was influenced by al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Initially, it did operate under Daesh's umbrella, however, differences led to the parting of the ways later.

The group comprises of militants from Al Qaeda Subcontinent, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Daesh, sources said.