KARACHI: Additional Inspector General of Police Sindh Dr Amir Shaikh said the attack on the Chinese consulate in the Karachi’s Clifton area on 23rd November 2018 was planned in Afghanistan on behest of Indian intelligence agency Research and analysis Wing (RAW).

During a press conference in DIG East office on Friday, Dr Shaikh said that terrorists belonging to banned outfit Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) were involved in the attack. The purpose behind the attack was to sabotage China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, he said.

AIG said that five terrorists involved in the attack on the foreign mission were arrested on Friday morning from Taiser Town during a raid conducted by law enforcement agencies. Sharing the details of attack, Amir Shaikh said Aslam Achhu group’s militants planned attack in Afghanistan and weapons for the attack were transported from Quetta to Karachi’s Baldia Town via train.

He further said that the terrorists stayed at the house of one Arif in Baldia Town, adding that now only one suspect remains to be arrested. He said that the facilitators were identified as Abdul Latif, Hussanin, Arif alias Nadir, Hasham alias Ali and Aslam Mugari.

Sharing the details of the attack, he said that the trained terrorists had been observing the consulate and particularly its visa section for almost four months. “They used to sit in the visa section of the consulate to observe when the gates open and other details.”

“The terrorists used fake computerised national identity cards,” he said. “We are writing to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Pakistan Railways to upgrade their security mechanism so that the facilities of the railways and the National Database & Registration Authority (Nadra) are not abused by terrorists.”

AIG shared several photographs “recovered from the cell phones of the terrorists”. One of the facilitators was a cousin of Aslam alias Acho, the alleged mastermind of the attack, while another was the brother-in-law of another high-profile terrorist, who is considered to be the second to Acho, said Shaikh.

Amir Shaikh added that there were reports that Acho and some other high-profile terrorists had been killed in an attack in Afghanistan but he refused to believe the news until and unless he “sees the bodies or any solid proof”.

It is an old tactic of terrorists to get themselves declared ‘killed’ to divert the attention of law enforcement agencies, he added

Law enforcement agencies personnel on 23rd November 2018 foiled an attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi’s Clifton area. They killed all attackers and recovered nine hand grenades, Kalashnikov bullets, magazines and explosives. Two policemen and two civilians were martyred in the attack at the Chinese Consulate.