Pakistani police arrested a suspect in the 2019 assassination attempt of a top Pakistani cleric, accusing him of belonging to the Zainebiyoun Brigade loyal to Iran.
The Brigade is based in Pakistan with over 1,000 militants. It includes Pakistani militants who were recruited by Iranian intelligence and fight in Syria, according to experts.
Pakistan's Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) in Sindh province announced Monday that it had arrested a suspect in the assassination attempt of Mufti Taqi Usmani in Karachi and accused him of being a "trained terrorist."
The CTD said that Syed Mohammad Mehdi was arrested in a raid at a bazaar in Karachi, accusing him of targeting clerics in the provincial capital and of working for Iranian intelligence.
It also accused him of being a member of the Zainabiyoun Brigade, which was involved in many attacks, including the attack on Mufti Usmani.
In 2019, Usmani, a religious scholar and judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Karachi. Two of his bodyguards were killed in the attack.
A police statement stated that the detained suspect conducted surveys on high-level targets and exchanged information about them with two people named Sayyed Reza Jafari and Abed Reza.
The police claimed that the pro-Iranian armed group, in cooperation with Jafari and Reza, attempted to assassinate Usmani and that it targeted top opposition figures.
It stated that Mehdi purchased weapons, ammunition, grenades, and explosives from enemy intelligence services and hid them in his home.
According to information, the Zainabiyoun Brigade was formed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and its members are receiving training in Iran before leaving for Syria, where they are fighting against the Syrian opposition within the ranks of the forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.
Relations between Iran and Pakistan have been tense after both nations announced they were targeting "terrorist agents" within their territories.
Experts believe that most of the Brigade's activities revolve around Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan, with the highest concentration of Shiite residents.
