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Pakistani Police Arrest Gunmen Trained by Iranian Intelligence

Pakistani police inspect cars at a checkpoint after a security alert was issued in Islamabad (AP)
Pakistani police inspect cars at a checkpoint after a security alert was issued in Islamabad (AP)
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Pakistani Police Arrest Gunmen Trained by Iranian Intelligence

Pakistani police inspect cars at a checkpoint after a security alert was issued in Islamabad (AP)
Pakistani police inspect cars at a checkpoint after a security alert was issued in Islamabad (AP)

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.

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Türkiye Presses PKK to Disarm ‘Immediately’

An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
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Türkiye Presses PKK to Disarm ‘Immediately’

An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)

Türkiye on Thursday insisted the PKK and all groups allied with it must disarm and disband "immediately", a week after a historic call by the Kurdish militant group's jailed founder.

"The PKK and all groups affiliated with it must end all terrorist activities, dissolve and immediately and unconditionally lay down their weapons," a Turkish defense ministry source said.

The remarks made clear the demand referred to all manifestations of Abdullah Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has led a four-decade insurgency against the Turkish state, costing tens of thousands of lives.

Although the insurgency targeted Türkiye, the PKK's leadership is based in the mountains of northern Iraq and its fighters are also part of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a key force in northeastern Syria.

Last week, Ocalan made a historic call urging the PKK to dissolve and his fighters to disarm, with the group on Saturday accepting his call and declaring a ceasefire.

The same day, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that if the promises were not kept, Turkish forces would continue their anti-PKK operations.

"If the promises given are not kept and an attempt is made to delay... or deceive... we will continue our ongoing operations... until we eliminate the last terrorist," he said.

- Resonance in Syria, Iraq -

Since 2016, Türkiye has carried out three major military operations in northern Syria targeting PKK militants, which it sees as a strategic threat along its southern border.

Ankara has made clear it wants to see all PKK fighters disarmed wherever they are -- notably those in the US-backed SDF, which it sees as part of the PKK.

The SDF -- the bulk of which is made up of the Kurdish YPG -- spearheaded the fight that ousted ISIS extremists from Syria in 2019, and is seen by much of the West as crucial to preventing an extremist resurgence.

Last week, SDF leader Mazloum Abdi welcomed Ocalan's call for the PKK to lay down its weapons but said it "does not concern our forces" in northeastern Syria.

But Türkiye disagrees.

Since the toppling of Syria's Bashar al-Assad in December, Ankara has threatened military action unless YPG militants are expelled, deeming them to be a regional security problem.

"Our fundamental approach is that all terrorist organizations should disarm and be dissolved in Iraq and Syria, whether they are called the PKK, the YPG or the SDF," Omer Celik, spokesman for Erdogan's ruling AKP, said on Monday.

Ocalan's call also affects Iraq, with the PKK leadership holed up in the mountainous north where Turkish forces have staged multiple air strikes in recent years.

Turkish forces have also established numerous bases there, souring Ankara's relationship with Baghdad.

"We don't want either the PKK or the Turkish army on our land... Iraq wants everyone to withdraw," Iraq's national security adviser Qassem al-Araji told AFP.

"Turkish forces are (in Iraq) because of the PKK's presence," he said, while pointing out that Türkiye had "said more than once that it has no territorial ambitions in Iraq".