Four highly-qualified Pakistanis, including a man who had studied at two American universities and was running his own college, have been arrested here for their involvement in an attack on a bus that killed 45 Shia Ismaili Muslims and other terror strikes in the country.
The four suspects - Adil Masood Butt, Khalid Yusuf Bari, Saleem Ahmed and Mohammad Suleman Saeed - allegedly provided financial support and brainwashed the attackers who gunned down 45 Shia Ismaili Muslims after attacking the bus in Karachi on May 13, chief of police's Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Raja Umar Khattab said yesterday.
Butt has done his schooling from Karachi and then he went to the US where he did BBA from Indiana University in 1987 and MBA from New York Fordham University in 1992. He runs Karachi's College of Accountancy and Management Sciences, where around 2,000 students are enrolled.
Another suspect, Bari is an electronics engineer who used to work for the Pakistan International Airlines.
A special team arrested Bari on the basis of findings of the Joint Investigation Team of the bus carnage case and his interrogation led to the arrest of Butt and two others.
Bari allegedly had ties with an Al-Qaeda member and was was linked with Tanzeem-i-Islami. He was also associated with Karachi chief of al-Qaeda, Umar alias Jalal Chandio, and the mastermind of the bus attack, Abdullah Yusuf.
Another arrested suspect Saleem used to collect donations for a militant group in 1992-93. During this period he also gave sermons which were attended among others by Abdullah.
The fourth arrested accused Suleman is the brother-in-law of Abdullah and used to collect donations outside mosques and was also involved in delivering sermons in mosques and homes.
The wives of two of the arrested suspects, along with their accomplices, also used to brainwash educated and rich women through sermons and videos about the militant Islamic State group and other terrorist outfits.
Bari told the interrogators that his wife had established Al-Zikra Academy where at least 20 educated and rich women were allegedly involved in brainwashing women besides generating funds for terrorist groups.
"The arrest of the four suspects revealed that a strong network of women was being led by Bari's wife who also distributed USBs containing videos about ISIS," Khattab said.
The arrests showed clearly that militant and terrorist organisations had established strong networks in educational institutions, he said.
The CTD chief said police were closely monitoring all universities in Sindh, including in Karachi.
Bari had already been sent to the prison while investigations against other suspects were under way.
Their involvement in attacks is a worrying indication of rich and educated individuals' inclination towards militancy, Pakistan authorities said.
Six to eight Kalashnikov-wielding militants donning police uniforms on May 13 had gunned down 45 Shia Ismaili Muslims, shooting them in the head.
