The anti-Shia Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami (LeJ) claimed the attack. LeJ al-Almi is the latest name for the banned LeJ. Its spokesman who goes by the name of Ali bin Sufyan, made the announcement on their Twitter account.
These killings sent a wave of insecurity rippling through the Ahle Tasheeh or Shias of Karachi and especially those who regularly hold majlises at home during the period of mourning starting in Muharram. Many of them are now forced to guard their gatherings themselves or inform the neighbourhood police with a request for guard duty.
The ISPR press conference on the arrest of 97 suspects and the elimination of LeJ chief Malik Ishaq in 2015 gave the impression that at least sectarian militancy was done for a considerable time to come. But subsequent events proved otherwise. It is believed that in spite of the latest arrests in Karachi, still there are three to four small groups of LeJ which can become a trigger any time in the city, a CTD official told TFT
This outbreak of sectarian violence gives credence to a general impression that the ‘Karachi operation’—launched in 2013 to rid the city of daily homicides—has been largely directed against one political party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, and has spared sectarian militants. The truth is somewhere in between: the authorities have been active against sectarian killers but due to the nature of the beast, this kind of violence has not gone away.
So far this year, 12 Shias and 11 activists of the anti-Shia outfit Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (renamed ASWJ) have been killed, according to the Sindh Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD). Compare this to the 60 deaths in 2015, which includes 46 Ismaili Shias who were killed when their bus was attacked in Safoora Goth.
The law-enforcement agencies have been busy at work reacting to this. The police has claimed to have detected or named accused men in 28 high-profile killings that have taken place in the last two to three years in Karachi, including that of four soldiers, famous Qawwali singer Amjad Sabri and the more recent attack on the Nazimabad majlis. On Monday, the CTD disclosed the arrests of two men from the LeJ’s Naeem Bukhari group, Ishaq alias Bobby and Asim alias Capri from Liaquatabad. Bobby and Capri are among the leftover or overlooked suspects, who got out on bail twice and went back to doing what they know best. Incidentally, as they didn’t have any expertise in making bombs, they fall back on using pistols fitted with bullet-casing catchers to ensure that they don’t leave any evidence by dropping empty casings at the scene of the crime.
On the other hand, the Shia groups, which may be fewer in number and who the police have not named, operate in their signature style. They do not go after a random victim but hit at the brains behind the attacks or people they thought are instrumental in killings, according to a senior police official. They think this means that they will ensure there is be a longer lull before the next spate of murders.
The arrests that followed the killing of five Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat activists (ASWJ, formerly the Sipah-e-Sahaba) proved to be a superficial measure to appease pressure groups, especially since they were not booked directly for the killings. Former senator Faisal Raza Abidi was booked on charges of possession of an unlicensed weapon and questioned over murders of two Tableeghi Jamaat men. Maulana Mirza Yousaf Hussain was booked on charges of delivering an incitement-laden speech. In a bid to balance out the optics, the police and Rangers searched Masjid Siddiq-e-Akbar at Nagan Chowrangi, long considered the symbolic headquarters of the ASWJ. They arrested its secretary-general Maulana Taj Hanifi although the charges against him are not clear.
In February, ISPR’s Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa held a unique press conference to disclose the arrests of over 90 men, including the Karachi chief of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Naeem Bukhari, deputy chief Sabir Khan alias Munna, and Farooq Bhatti alias Musanna, the deputy of the Afghanistan-based leader of Al-Qaeda’s South Asia wing. (Naeem Bukhari’s trial is awaited in a military court.) These big ticket arrests were the biggest catch the law-enforcement agencies could have dreamed, especially Bukhari, who they had been hunting for years.
The arrested militants were planning to carry out a massive attack on Hyderabad Central Jail to break free, among 100 other terrorists, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was imprisoned for his role in kidnapping and beheading Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.
The ISPR press conference and the elimination of Malik Ishaq in 2015 gave the impression that at least sectarian militancy was done for a considerable time to come.
But subsequent events proved otherwise. It is believed that in spite of the latest arrests in Karachi, still there are three to four small groups of LeJ which can become a trigger any time in the city, a CTD official told TFT. They can be best described as self-starter groups who are capable of working without a central command structure, the officer remarked. All we need to do is look at the start of Muharram this year. It began with the target killing of four Hazara women in Quetta, signaling that the LeJ can still strike.
Tackling the LeJ
Once considered to be the most lethal militant outfit of Pakistan, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has been eliminated in Punjab for now. LeJ chief Malik Ishaq, his two sons Usman and Haq Nawaz, and 11 attackers were killed in an alleged exchange of fire with police in July 2015 in Punjab’s Muzaffargarh. (The LeJ didn’t wasted much time in avenging Malik Ishaq’s death. A month later it struck back by sending a suicide bomber to Shuja Khanzada’s home in Attock, Punjab.)
The outfit’s remnants have since fled from Punjab, however, and sought refuge in different parts of Balochistan such as Quetta, Wadh in Balochistan’s Khuzdar and Hub to name a few, a senior police officer of the Punjab police told TFT. And now, despite being hunted down in Punjab, LeJ is largely considered responsible for the latest wave of sectarian violence in Karachi.
Nevertheless, the encounter with Malik Ishaq was a turning point, clearly defining Punjab’s government policy towards the LeJ from that day on. And the Counter Terrorism Department of the Punjab police has never looked back. Before this, Malik Ishaq commanded fear among the police force with officers too scared to voice their views on the subject even in private gatherings. This has not necessarily been the case in Sindh. Contrary to the practice adopted by the Punjab CTD, a few officers of the Sindh police kept eliminating the usual suspects in the name of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. Not once was an LeJ man reported to have been killed in such “encounters”, the fear of reprisal was too great.
In August, a five-million-rupee reward was offered for information leading to the arrest of the LeJ head of al-Almi, Syed Safdar, who goes by the name of Yousuf Khorasani. Safdar, who grew up in Karachi, is believed to be in Afghanistan. His brothers are believed to have been taken into the custody of the security agencies after the October 24 Quetta police training centre attack in which 60 cadets were killed. One of his brothers was killed in what the Rangers described as an encounter in Ittehad Town. The encounter could have been a way to convey the message that his family would not be spared if he did not desist from terrorist attacks.
The LeJ is on the run, at least from the Punjab as its police claims, but the outfit still appears to have re-organized by forging some sort of operational understanding with the international terror franchise of the Islamic State. Indeed, the Quetta police training centre attack was claimed by both the LeJ Al Almi and the Islamic State’s Amaq news agency. LeJ Al Almi’s financing is arranged by IS, while foot soldiers and logistical support is provided by its local associate.
The co-ordination between the IS franchise and foot soldiers can be inferred from the fact that on September 10, Amaq Agency claimed that “Islamic State fighters killed and wounded three Bohra Shi’ites in Karachi’s Nazimabad area.” A night before, local media had reported the incident as the outcome of people resisting an armed robbery. A senior police officer in the jurisdiction’s District Central confirmed to TFT that it was actually a target killing. The problem has clearly, not gone away in Karachi.
The writer is Pakistan Correspondent at a foreign news agency and can be reached at syedraza.hassan@gmail.com