Islamabad: Pakistani authorities have launched a hunt for several of radical Kashmiri leader Aasiya Indrabi's nephews, suspected of having links with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, after they fled during a raid over the weekend.
Authorities have so far been unable to trace Irtiyaz-un-Nabi Gilani and Mujahid Gilani, two nephews of Indrabi, and their wives, the Dawn newspaper reported today.
Irtiyaz fled the scene “firing at the joint raiding team” of policemen and intelligence operatives. The daily quoted its sources as saying that the men were planning “terrorist activity in collaboration with Al Qaeda and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan”.
Syed Shoiab Indrabi, the son of Indrabi's brother Zia Ul Haq, was arrested during the raid on a house in Sector G-15 on the outskirts of Islamabad on Saturday.
Zulqarnain Gilani, the brother of Irtiyaz and Mujahid who occasionally visited Gilani Manzil, the house in Sector G-15, too is untraceable. Neighbours told the Dawn that they had mostly seen Zulqarnain in what appeared to be military uniform.
The disappearance of all occupants of the house “has deepened the mystery surrounding the raid” and their relationship with Aasiya Indrabi, leader of the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, the report said.
Security agencies found a large cache of weapons and explosives at the house. Pakistani media reports said they also found four small surveillance drones that were to be used in terrorist attacks.
There was a workshop, equipped with tools and equipment, in Gilani Manzil's basement. Sources said they suspected that Irtiyaz fabricated the remote-controlled planes found in the house. He made alterations to the planes by installing three to four boxes to carry explosives for terrorist attacks, they said.
The sources said investigators traced some foreign bank accounts operated by the suspects and a probe was in progress.
Sources close to the raiding team were quoted by Dawn as saying that Irtiyaz, initially misidentified as Irtiqaz in a police FIR, is a junior lecturer of electronics at International Islamic University Islamabad. He graduated from the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering and Technology.
One neighbour said Irtiyaz and Mujahid had been regular occupants of Gilani Manzil for three years. Mujahid worked in Pakistan Ordnance Factory Hospital in Wah Cantonment for years before joining a clinic in Sector G-15.
Their father is a doctor by profession and works abroad. Shoaib Indrabi, the man in police custody, arrived in Islamabad from Saudi Arabia a few weeks ago.
Gilani Manzil is located some distance from other houses in the neighbourhood. The residents of the house kept to themselves and only male members were spotted on their way to mosque or their jobs, neighbours said.
Sources told the daily that the Gilani family belonged to Srinagar. It migrated to Mirpur in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in 1989 and moved to Muzaffarabad three years later. They later moved to Abbottabad before shifting to Islamabad.
An unnamed security officer was quoted as saying that the “suspected activities in the Gilani Manzil could be a follow-up of the botched terrorist attempt at Bhara Khau, which led to the recovery of a vehicle packed with explosives from a house”.
The people behind the two events might be connected, he said.
A police team visited Gilani Manzil yesterday and dug up more spots inside and outside the house and searched the building but found nothing, sources said.
In Srinagar, Aasiya Indrabi expressed concern over lack of information on the whereabouts of two relatives who she claimed were arrested by Pakistani police.
Indrabi said while Pakistani police have admitted to arresting her nephew Shoiab Indrabi, the family has not been informed of the whereabouts of her nephews Irtiyaz and Mujahid Gilani.
“Their whereabouts are still unknown and we are worried about their fate,” she said. She claimed her sister and Irtiyaz's wife were taken away by police to a hospital where they were let off.
Indrabi claimed Shoiab had gone to Pakistan from Saudi Arabia less than a month ago and was going through a series of tests for getting admission in an engineering college.
