Police in Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi yesterday identified a new terror group which they said trained under al-Qaeda fighters near the Afghan border and was involved in various attacks, including one on the city's top army general.
Eight of 11 militants rounded up in separate raids at the weekend had formed an outfit called Jund Allah, meaning God's brigade, Sindh province police chief Kamal Shah told a press conference here.
The three others included al-Qaeda terror planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammad's nephew Musabir Urumchi and two members of the outlawed but highly active Sunni Muslim militant gang Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (Warriors of Jhangvi).
"The Jund Allah group is a new terror group which has links with al-Qaeda, and their members have been trained in Wana," Shah told reporters.
He specified that they were trained in a tribal village near Wana, capital of the remote semi-autonomous district of South Waziristan, called Shakai and less than 30km from the Afghan border.
Pakistan's army and air force have been pounding an al-Qaeda training camp near Shakai in since Friday, but it was not clear if it was the same camp at which the Jund Allah members had trained.
Shah said the Jund Allah group carried out last week's attack on the Karachi army commander's convoy, which killed 11 people including seven troops, three policemen and a pedestrian but missed the general.
"The same group has been involved in major terrorist attacks since January, including the double car bomb attack near the residence of the US consul general," he said.
One policeman was killed and more than a dozen people injured in the May 26 twin attack.
The Jund Allah fighters, however, had not taken part in sectarian killings, he said, such as two suicide bomb attacks on minority Shiite mosques in violence-wracked Karachi in May.
The Jund Allah leader, identified as Attaur Rehman, told interrogators they were targeting Westerners, foreign missions, army and police officers, Shah said.
Rehman told investigators his group was acting in retaliation to the government's campaign to eradicate al-Qaeda-linked fighters from its northwest border regions.
Chief police investigator Fay-yaz Leghari said Rehman told interrogators that Pakistan had sacrificed its honor to please the US, with whom it is closely allied in the "war on terror."
"You have sold your pride and honor to please the Americans and we will take revenge from you and your masters," Leghari quoted Rehman as saying.
At least 20 members of Jund Allah had been identified and there could be more, Leghari said. "They are all from Karachi," he told reporters.
All of the 11 except Mohammad's nephew were to be brought before an anti-terrorism court later yesterday, he said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese