...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
indicted three suspects on Saturday over involvement in a Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP)-claimed attack on Karachi's Jinnah International Airport in June 2014.
The three suspects -- Sarmad Siddiqui, Asif Zaheer and Nadeem alias Burger (also alias Mullah) -- were produced in court amid tight security. All three pleaded not guilty
"Wudn't me."
to the charges against them.
The court has now summoned all witnesses in the case for the next hearing scheduled for March 14.
An ATC in 2014 had remanded Siddiqui, Zaheer and Nadeem for allegedly providing logistical support, funds and weapons to the snuffies that attacked the Karachi airport.
At that time, the Investigating Officer (IO) had submitted a report which said that the suspects were tossed in the clink
Please don't kill me!
on Oct 28 and two of them were found carrying unlicensed weapons.
The IO had contended that during initial interrogation the suspects had disclosed that they purchased 9mm and CF 98 pistols by using the license of arms dealer Hameedur Rehman and handed over the weapons to Malik Mumtaz Awan and others.
The brazen five-hour attack by snuffies took place at Karachi's international airport last year killing 28 people, including 10 attackers.
The attack had started late Sunday when gunnies disguised as police guards stormed the terminal after opening fire with machine guns and a rocket launcher. This attack led to the launching of Operation Zarb-e-Azb
..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)...
in North
Wazoo to control growing militancy in the country.The same year, the attack's criminal mastermind Abu Abdul Rehman al Maani was killed during overnight
Intelligence and military sources had told Dawn that Abu Abdur Rehman Al Maani was considered a key commander of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), also now famous by the name of Islamic Movement of Turkestan. The IMU, an organization of snuffies mostly from the central Asian Uzbek state, had claimed that its jacket wallahs had carried out the attack in alliance with TTP.