TOBA TEK SINGH: A known Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terrorist has been arrested by the Toba police. The terrorist, wanted by the police of various districts for killing of Shia leaders, was arrested from Bahawalnagar. This was disclosed on Tuesday by SP Amer Zulfiqar Khan. Addressing a press conference here, the SP said Naveed Akhtar Jat, a resident of Chak 54/4-R in Haroonabad, was arrested on the pointation of a murder suspect being investigated by the Toba police in connection with the murder of Shia lawyer Malik Ibrar Hussain.
"During the investigation," the SP added, "the arrested persons revealed that they were in touch with Naveed, who according to them, was the right-hand man of Riaz Basra in Pakistan to accomplish the latter's terrorist activities."
The police chief said: "A police party headed by DSP Dilshad Baloch made hectic efforts to arrest Naveed. It was a great success for us as the dangerous terrorist has so far confessed his involvement in at least five terrorism incidents in different cities."
SP Amer further revealed that as his first test, Naveed snatched the bike and cash from a forest officer in 1997 in Hasilpur. "Then he joined the LJ and in the same year he killed a Shia shopkeeper in Faisalabad's Jhang Bazaar. Also in the same year, he killed two Shia persons - Abid Shah and his son Abbas Raza - in Sahiwal. He also killed, in the same year, another Shia activist, Sarwar Shah, in Chichawatni. In 1998, he killed Judicial Magistrate Fida Hussain and his daughter at Gujranwala," the SP said and added that during the investigation Naveed revealed that when he killed magistrate Fida, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Chief Riaz Basra himself supervised the operation from a mosque nearby.
According to SP Amer, the terrorist is one of the close aides of known LJ terrorists Ijaz Jajji, Tariq Tipu and Malik Ishaq and had received training in Afghanistan. Answering a question about the killer of Malik Ibrar, the SP said the killer, Tayab, was handed over to the Toba police by the Jhang police on a physical remand for the completion of the murder investigation.