KARACHI: The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Pakistan’s Sindh police said on Tuesday it had arrested an alleged hitman from the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) militant outfit from Karachi, recovering weapons and exposing what officials described as a cell involved in the killing of police informers and sectarian attacks.
Suspect Ameen, also known as Manna, was detained along with three accomplices, according to the CTD, after officers acted on “secret information.” About 13 criminal cases have already been registered against the group in multiple police stations across Karachi, the department added.
LeJ, an extremist group accused of numerous sectarian attacks across Pakistan since the 1990s, has also been accused of assassinating law enforcement personnel and political rivals. Karachi has experienced episodic waves of sectarian violence, with militant factions targeting members of rival religious communities as well as police informers in densely populated neighborhoods.
“In view of the recent targeted killings in Karachi, including the killing of police informers and sectarian murders, the Counter Terrorism Department Sindh conducted intelligence-based operations in various areas of the city and continued to pursue the terrorists for their arrest,” the CTD said in a statement.
