Targeted again: Six nominated in Shikarpur suicide blasts

Four suicide bombers tried to blow up in Eid congregations, one arrested; TTP claims responsibility

SUKKUR/ HYDERABAD: At least 10 people, including four cops, were injured, as police foiled two separate suicide attempts during Eid prayers in Shikarpur’s Khanpur tehsil.

Police said four suicide attackers infiltrated Khanpur during Eid prayers. The banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack in an email sent by the group's spokesman Muhammad Khorasani.

Two of the attackers targeted an Eid prayer ground where one assailant blew himself up, injuring 10 people, two of whom were policemen. The other attacker fled, police said.

Two other attackers targeted an imambargah but were stopped by police at the entrance on account of appearing suspicious. One of the attackers blew himself up after he was stopped by guards, whereas the other was arrested, police said.

Police have registered a First Information Report (FIR) against six suspects under sections 120-B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), 324, 353 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), sections 3 and 4 of the Explosive Substance Act and 6/7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act on the complaint of Syed Mohammad Shah Kazmi, a member of the Shuhada Committee.

The committee is a district level forum of the Shia community that was formed in the wake of last year's suicide bombing in a Shikarpur imambargah that killed 61 people.

Khanpur police have said four men nominated in the FIR include Abdul Rehman (dead), Usman (arrested) and Umer and Hafeez (their handlers) who fled. Two accused remain unidentified.

SSP Shikarpur Umar Tufail, while talking to The Express Tribune, said it was the first time in the history that a suicide bomber was arrested alive.

Last year, at least 61 people had been killed and 50 others injured in an explosion at a Shikarpur imambargah during Friday prayers. In 2010, a suicide bomber targeted former MNA and National Peoples Party leader Ibrahim Jatoi, who escaped unharmed. In 2013, Jatoi was the prime target of yet another suicide bomber. This time he was travelling in his bullet-proof vehicle to Shikarpur, when a suicide bomber rammed his motorcycle into his car. The vehicle was destroyed completely but everyone inside the car remained unhurt. Last year a mourning procession was attacked in Jacobabad in which more than 26 persons were killed and 60 were left injured.

Meanwhile, IG Sindh AD Khawaja did not rule out the possibility of involvement of a neighbouring country in the suicide attack in Shikarpur.

“Terrorists are being trained in a neighbouring country and are being sent to seminaries here [in Pakistan],” he said while addressing an event in Thatta district on Tuesday.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2016.