8 decade-old shrine damaged in blast

PESHAWAR: Militants blew up a mosque and a shrine in Landi Kotal in Khyber Agency early on Thursday, local officials said on Thursday. No casualties were reported.

The predawn attack targeted a shrine situated inside a mosque in Ashukhel area of Landi Kotal tehsil of Khyber Agency.

The mosque and shrine were badly damaged in the blast, which went off around 2:00 am, a local official told The Express Tribune. The official said that suspected militants had planted explosives at the shrine of Sahibzada Mohammad Sadiq, situated inside the mosque of the same name.

The official said that though the blast was powerful and left the mosque and shrine in a terrible shape there were no casualities because no one was inside the mosque at the time of the attack. Locals said that two shrines in the area had been destroyed in the past few months. This is the third shrine to have been targeted.

Locals said the shrine was around 80 years old and had been named after Sahibzada Mohammad Sadiq, a cleric belonging to the Shinwari tribe. The shrine’s caretaker said the shrine was very popular with locals, adding that hundreds of people flocked to the site regularly.

The attack took place in the village of the federal Minister for Zakat and Ushr Noorul Haq Qadri, who condemned the attack.

Attacks on shrines have become commonplace in the ongoing struggle against militancy. The most recent and high-profile attacks on shrines were the twin suicide hits on Data Darbar in Lahore on July 2 and a June 21 attack on another shrine in the limits of Chamkani police station in Peshawar.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2010.