Takfiri militants come back from Syria for attacks in Pakistan

The emergence of a new takfiri Deobandi militant outfit — Ansar-ul-Sharia Pakistan — has posed a serious challenge to the country’s security establishment, which believed that an unknown number of “battle-hardened Syria-returned” militants could launch major attacks in Pakistan after the announcement of the group’s formation on social media.

Well-placed sources in the police’s Counter-Terrorism Department said: “It is actually the Pakistan chapter of the Ansar-ul-Sharia that had been fighting in Syria.” As the group had been operating under the umbrella of Jabhat al-Nusra, its loyalty was to the traditional Al Qaeda leadership under Ayman al-Zawahiri rather than militant Deobandis-allied Wahhabi takfiri Daesh group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, said a senior official on condition of anonymity.
No one can exactly tell how many takfiri militants have returned from Syria, but according to some intelligence estimates a significant number of militants have come back.
The group claimed on social media that a large number of individuals, specifically from Karachi and south Punjab, who had travelled to Syria to fight alongside Daesh, were returning home after they had become ‘disillusioned’ with the message and practices of Daesh. But based on the current situation in Syria, the CTD official believed that so far the militants had not come back home in large numbers.
Serving and retired security personnel are prime targets of terrorists
Even if a small number of militants had arrived they were ‘battle hardened’ and had greater experience than local militants, the official said, explaining that they could act as a ‘force multiplier’ enabling small splinter groups such as Ansar-ul-Sharia Pakistan to launch major targeted attacks.
Since April the Ansar-ul-Sharia had carried out three attacks targeting police officials and an ex-army officer. Retired Col Tahir Nagi was sprayed with bullets near Baloch Colony bridge in April, followed by the killing of two policemen in New Town in May and four policemen in SITE on June 23. Although the group claimed responsibility for two of the attacks, a forensic examination of spent bullet casings found that the same weapon — a 9mm pistol — was used in the killing of the two policemen in May.
The CTD official said that evidence collected from the three crime scenes indicated that the acts of terrorism were carried out by a small but proficient group. Six shots were fired within 10 seconds in the April attack and 28 shots were fired in last Friday’s attack, indicating that the gunman had ‘professional battlefield experience’.