PESHAWAR
The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of police on Wednesday claimed to have successfully dismantled Daesh Khorasan network in Peshawar and has achieved major operational successes in several cases, including the killing of religious scholar Mufti Munir Shakir.
Mufti Munir Shakir, founder of the banned Lashkar-i-Islam, was killed in a blast outside his seminary in Urmar area on the outskirts of the provincial capital on March 15 this year. They said the department identified the gang involved in this heinous act while efforts were under way to apprehend the culprits in the near future.
The CTD officials, while briefing media-persons said that it busted a group of militants responsible for no fewer than 18 terrorist incidents in the settled areas of the provincial capital, adding that those attacks include the martyrdom of deputy superintendent of police Sardar Hussain Khan and 14 other police officials of various ranks.
They said that following interrogation from arrested terrorists involved in several terrorist activities, CTD recovered a substantial cache of arms, ammunition, and explosive material, including IEDs, adding that the timely action also led to securing of at least six sensitive installations that had already been subjected to reconnaissance by militants and were in the final stages of planning an attack.
“CTD has identified the gang responsible for the targeted killing of religious scholars, enabling focused follow-up operations to apprehend the culprits,” they said. Also, the CTD officials, who didn’t want to be named, claimed to have busted the Daesh Khorasan network directly responsible for the suicide attack in Peshawar city on 11 May, 2025, some four kilometres from a JUI-F gathering being addressed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman at Mufti Mehmood Markaz on Ring Road, on outskirts of the provincial capital.
While briefing journalists, CTD revealed that apart from currency notes and bank transactions, terrorist organisations received extortion money through digital currency as well.
