News / Pakistan

Pakistan uncovers Daesh fundraising network in Karachi

Monday, 21 December 2015 4:01 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 21 December 2015 4:14 PM ]

Pakistani security officials inspect a military police jeep following an attack by gunmen in Karachi on December 1, 2015. (AFP photo)

Law enforcement agencies in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi are hunting down a network of women acting as fundraisers for the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.

Raja Umar Khattab, the chief of the Counter Terrorism Department of Sindh Province, said police have launched a massive operation to track down the women, who belong to rich families.

"A group of 20 women, all from well-off families, distributed USBs (computer memory sticks) containing Daesh videos, and also preached in support of terror organizations. They also arranged marriages among the group's followers," Khattab said.

The senior official noted that the network has been collecting funds for terrorists under the cover of charity.

The revelation comes days after security forces arrested Adil Masood Butt, a suspected financer of a deadly attack on a bus that left over 40 Shia Muslims dead in the volatile city back in May. Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack on members of the Shia Ismaili community in Karachi.

Butt has confessed to investigators that his wife has established an academy which has no office or organizational structure. However, the academy is secretly being used to raise financing for Deash terrorist group that is wreaking havoc in several countries, mainly Iraq and Syria.

In recent months, the Daesh militant group has been making inroads in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The group is also using a sophisticated social media campaign to woo local Taliban and other militants.

Residents in Pakistan’s troubled northwestern tribal regions have reported the circulation of leaflets backing Daesh terrorists in the region. Slogans in support of the group have also been seen on the walls in a number of towns.

A file photo of Daesh Takfiri militants in Afghanistan

The Pakistani army chief has also admitted that some groups in the country were attempting to prepare the ground for Daesh activity.

“There are people in Islamabad who want to show their allegiance to Daesh. So it's a very dangerous phenomenon,” General Raheel Sharif said in an address to the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies in the British capital, London, in early October.

However, General Sharif vowed that Pakistan would not allow "even a shadow" of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group into the country.

“As far as Daesh is concerned, in Pakistan, even a shadow of Daesh would not be allowed,” General Sharif emphasized, calling Daesh a greater threat than al-Qaeda.

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