KARACHI, 28 September 2004 — Karachi went on high alert yesterday, a day after Pakistan killed its enemy No. 1 in a gunbattle in Nawabshah. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said he was happy to hear about the death of Amjad Farooqi and officials said the killing was a big blow to terrorists in the country.
Police stepped up patrols around foreign consulates and government offices in this volatile city, fearing a backlash from terrorists.
Musharraf, traveling in the Netherlands, hailed the operation and said he was confident it would lead to more arrests. “We eliminated one of the very major sources of terrorist attacks. He was not only involved on attacks on me but also on attacks elsewhere in the country. So a very big terrorist has been eliminated,” the president said.
Farooqi was shot dead during a two-hour gunbattle at his rural hideout north of Karachi on Sunday morning, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said. “It is a big achievement. He was one of the most wanted terrorists here,” the head of the Interior Ministry’s crisis management cell, Brig. Javed Cheema, said.
“Farooqi’s elimination is a crushing blow to the Al-Qaeda network in Pakistan because he was the man who had been providing Al-Qaeda terrorists with the manpower to carry out attacks,” said a senior security officer.
A mobile phone call intercepted by intelligence agencies led them to his new hideout in Nawabshah, 270 km north of Karachi, said Karachi’s chief police investigator Fayyaz Leghari.
Paramilitary police surrounding his hideout were met with a hail of automatic gunfire from Farooqi and his accomplices. In the ensuing firefight Farooqi cried out, “I prefer death!”, according to a security officer involved in the raid.
Interior Minister, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao said Farooqi was the mastermind of the two attempts on the life of Musharraf. When encircled, he tried to use women and children as human shields and was killed.
“The three accomplices of Farooqi are being interrogated by intelligence agencies,” said Sindh province Home Minister Rauf Siddiqi. Farooqi’s body has been transported to Karachi and DNA samples are being sent to the eastern city of Lahore to confirm his identity, Siddiqi said.
Circumstantial evidences and the information with intelligence and law enforcing agencies proved him to be Amjad Farooqi. However, to confirm his identity the DNA test is being done, Sherpao said.
Investigators said Farooqi was a member of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group. Police officers said he rented the house in Nawabshah a couple of months ago. Security personnel seized computers, maps, foreign and local currency from the house, said one official from Nawabshah.
Brig. Cheema said subsequent arrests were made in several parts of the country. Police sources said at least three men were detained in the Sindh town of Sukkar, around 400 km north of Karachi.
Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led war on terror, has arrested more than 500 Al-Qaeda suspects, including senior members of Osama Bin Laden’s network and handed many of them to the United States.
Bin Laden himself is thought to be hiding in the forbidding mountainous terrain bordering Afghanistan.
— Additional input from agencies
