Karachi: An antiterrorism court (ATC) judge on Wednesday remanded three of the four Al Qaida suspects involved in the Karachi airport attack, into police custody until November 10.
The four were arrested following encounters with the police.
Crime Investigation Department (CID) police nabbed the four suspects from different parts of the city on Tuesday for planning and financing the deadly attack on Karachi international airport in June that left 28 people killed besides 10 terrorists.
The brazen attack on the Pakistan’s busiest airport was owned up by the Pakistani Taliban and led to the collapse of peace talks with the government and the launch of a long awaited army offensive against militant hideouts in the North Waziristan tribal agency.
The suspects were identified as Sarmad Siddiqi, Asif Zaheer, Nadeem alias Burger alias Mullah and Master Eisa.
The three, except Master Eisa, were brought to the ATC court of the eastern district where Judge Bashir Khosa granted remand of the suspects until November 10 allowing police to probe charges against them including sponsoring the airport attack, encounter with the police and possessing of illegal weapons.
In a press conference on Tuesday evening CID chief Saqib Ismail said the suspects belonged to a banned militant group that was linked with Al Qaida and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
The suspects had hired a house in Shahrae Faisal Colony to house the 10 suspects who carried out the attack with heavy weaponry, rockets and suicide vests at midnight on June 8.
In the nightlong shoot-out and bombing, the ethnic Uzbek attackers gunned down or blew up at least 28 people including officials of Airport Security Force (ASF).
Pakistan International Airlines eight cargo workers who were trapped in an inferno suffocated to death.
CID officials said the suspect also arranged a sum of about 20 million rupees (Dh7.13 million) to finance and plan the attack. The attackers were trained at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and the money was remitted through informal channels.
