Attack on Muharram procession: Police declare arrest of Jacobabad attack ‘facilitators’

Police team identified three residents of Jacobabad as the main facilitators of the suicide bomber

SUKKUR: Jacobabad police have arrested two of the three suspected facilitators of the suicide bomb blast in the city on October 23, last year, which targeted the Muharram 9 procession. The attack killed 28 people and left 59 injured.

Larkana DIG Abdullah Shaikh addressed a hurriedly called press conference at the SSP Office in Jacobabad on Thursday evening.

During the investigations, the police team identified three residents of Jacobabad - Abdul Basit Brohi, Ibrahim Brohi and Kamran Farooqui Kharani - as the main facilitators of the suicide bomber.

According to DIG Shaikh, the team raided different places in Jacobabad and Quetta and finally managed to arrest two suspects, Abdul Basit and Ibrahim, along with arms and explosives. Kharani is still on the run, he added.

Nearly a year before the deadly attack, these suspects had met at a seminary, Madrassa Hussainia Ibn-e-Ameer Muyavia, situated on eastern bypass in Quetta in November 2014. Apart from the three facilitators, this meeting was attended by the masterminds Zahoor, Zubair, Aslam Shah and Shah Jee.

A follow-up meeting was held in September 2015 – a month before the attack. This meeting was attended by the same men. During this meeting, Zahoor presented a young man, named Abdullah alias Habibullah Brohi, as the suicide bomber chosen to attack the Muharram 9 procession in Jacobabad, DIG Shaikh narrated.

The bomber, along with his suicide jacket, was handed over to Ibrahim five days before the attack. Ibrahim let the bomber stay at his house for four days, said DIG Shaikh, adding that all these terrorists belong to the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.