Pakistan’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on Monday claimed that the mastermind of the February 17 terror attack on the Karachi Police Office (KPO) and his accomplice were gunned down during an encounter, news agency Geo News reported.
The mastermind behind the attack, Iriadullah, was gunned down after the CTD received a tip-off near the Northern Bypass in the Manghopir area of Karachi.
When the CTD encountered Iriadullah and his accomplice there was a brief exchange of fire during which both of them died. The CTD arrested two others.
Iriadullah was the commander of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) Karachi outfit. The second terrorist was identified as Abdul Waheed.
In February, three terrorists armed with heavy weaponry and wearing suicide jackets entered the multi-storeyed KPO building in a bid to assassinate the Karachi police chief.
Security forces regained control of the police station several hours after the terrorists entered the premises and eliminated three militants. Three security forces and a civilian were killed and 18 security forces wounded in the attacks. One suicide bomber blew himself up after entering the building.
The attack on February 17 began around 7pm and ended around 11 pm, lasting for at least four hours, as policemen cleared the five-story building phase by phase.
The attack on the police station came days after a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in Peshawar killing 85. TTP claimed the responsibility for the attack on the police station and a faction of the Taliban, named the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the bombing, according to a report by CNN.
A report by Nikkei Asia pointed out that modern weapons and sophisticated night vision devices left behind by American troops withdrawing from Afghanistan has been used by the TTP to increase attacks on the law enforcement.
The Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, an Islamabad-based think tank, says that the TTP was responsible for 89 attacks across Pakistan in 2022. Peshawar police chief Moazzam Jah Ansari said that the TTP used high-tech equipment like thermal weapon sights during an attack in the suburbs of Peshawar in January.
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