Security officials cordon off the site of the suicide attack on Aftab Khan Sherpao in Charsadda. PHOTO: AFP
City Police Station SHO Imran Mohmand told reporters on Monday that they had conducted a surgical raid on a house in the Utmanzai area after receiving intelligence reports about the presence of the suspect, Samiullah, there.
At least 67 people were killed and around 70 were injured when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest during EIdul Azha prayers at the Jamia Masjid Sherpao on December 21, 2007. Sherpao, then serving as the federal interior minister, was the intended target of the attack but he survived.
Mohmand added that Samiullah had been named in the FIR for the 2007 bomb attack.
He had been hiding for the past nine years, prompting the government to place a bounty of Rs1 million for his arrest.
Sherpao has been repeatedly attacked by militants, surviving at least four such attacks. The first attack took place on April 29, 2007, when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a public meeting Sherpao was addressing in the Station Koroona area of Charsadda, killing at least 22 people. Months later, he came under another suicide attack targeting an Eid congregation in his village mosque in December 2007. Then on March 3, 2012, another suicide attacker targeted his vehicle. The latest attack came on April 30, 2015, when his convoy was attacked in the Umarzai village of Charsadda district.
Separately, Sardheri police in Charsadda district said on Monday they apprehended around 11 other suspects and recovered ammunition from them.
Shabqadar courts shifted
The district courts in Shabqadar have been shifted to a new building located on Peshawar road. The move comes around three weeks after a suicide attack on the old building in Shabqadar Bazaar left at least 16 people dead and injured 25 others.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 29th, 2016.
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