KARACHI: The Counterterrorism Department (CTD) in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province said on Saturday it had arrested a key member of the Iran-backed Zainebiyoun Brigade outfit in Karachi, accusing him of being involved in sectarian attacks in the city. 

Pakistani authorities have arrested several militants affiliated with the Zainebiyoun Brigade in recent years, notably in the country’s commercial hub of Karachi. The city has been a significant recruitment hub for the militant outfit, along with three other regions – Parachinar, Quetta and Gilgit Baltistan.

Pakistan’s interior ministry designated Zainebiyoun Brigade as a “terrorist” organization in March 2024, saying it had reasons to believe the outfit was engaged in certain activities “prejudicial to the peace and security of the country.”

The CTD said in its press release that Syed Muhammad Musa Rizvi, alias Kamran, was arrested from the city’s Soldier Bazaar area, adding that the accused had been in hiding for fear of being arrested.

“The suspect is an important member of the Zainebiyoun Brigade and has been directly and indirectly involved in various sectarian activities that have been regularly funded by the organization,” the CTD said. 

It said Rizvi had confessed to carrying out a sectarian attack in Karachi’s Taimuria area on Sept. 5, 2023, which had resulted in the killing of a person named Qari Khurram and injuries to two others. 

The CTD said Rizvi also confessed to killing a person named Sher Khan on Sep. 20, 2023, in Karachi’s Mobina Town with his accomplices and another named Jannat Gul on Nov. 26, 2023, in the city’s Sachal area. 

It said that Rizvi confessed that on Nov. 13, 2024, that he played the role of a facilitator in the killing of a person named Syed Abu Hashim in Karachi’s Samanabad area.

It said that the suspect was being investigated for terror financing and other cases based on which he had been arrested. 

“The investigation of the accused is going on and more revelations are expected,” the CTD said. 

In January 2024, Sindh CTD said it had apprehended Syed Muhammad Mehdi, a suspected militant associated with the Zainebiyoun Brigade who had been involved in an assassination attempt on Mufti Taqi Usmani, a top Pakistani cleric, in Karachi in 2019. The attack had killed two of Mufti Usmani’s guards.

In July 2022, then Pakistan interior minister Rana Sanaullah Khan told the Senate that Zainebiyoun Brigade members were among the militants “found actively involved in terrorist activities” in the country in 2019-2021.

NEW DELHI: Indian investigative agencies on Friday questioned a man they extradited from the United States and charged with being a “mastermind” of the deadly 2008 Mumbai siege.

India accuses Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 66, of being a member of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group, designated by the United Nations as a “terrorist” organization.

Rana, a Pakistan-born Canadian, has denied all charges — including waging war against India, conspiring to commit murder and acts of “terrorism.” He could face the death penalty if convicted.
New Delhi blamed the LeT group — as well as intelligence officials from New Delhi’s arch-enemy Pakistan — for the 2008 Mumbai attacks when 10 gunmen carried out a multi-day siege of the country’s financial capital.

Nine of the attackers died in the siege, while one captured alive was tried and hanged.
India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA), which accuses Rana of being the attack’s “mastermind,” took him into custody under heavy guard after he arrived in a special flight to the capital New Delhi on Thursday evening.

“Rana will remain in custody for 18 days, during which the agency will question him in detail in order to unravel the complete conspiracy behind the deadly 2008 attacks,” NIA said.

Rana, who served in the Pakistani army’s medical corps, faces 10 criminal charges including conspiracy, murder, commission of a “terrorist” act, and forgery.

Rana, who has denied the charges, is accused by India of helping his long-term friend, David Coleman Headley, who was sentenced by a US court in 2013 to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty to aiding LeT militants, including by scouting target locations in Mumbai.

Rana is accused of playing a smaller role than Headley, but India maintains he is one of the key plotters.

He was flown to India after the US Supreme Court this month rejected his bid to remain in the United States, where he was serving a 14-year sentence related to another LeT-linked attack.

India released a photograph of Rana arriving in Delhi, taken from his back, dressed in a brown jumpsuit and guarded by NIA officers.

India also accused Pakistan of direct involvement in the Mumbai attack and Rana of having connections with its intelligence agencies, charges Islamabad denies.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman Shafqat Ali said that Rana “did not apply to renew Pakistani documents over the past two decades.”