Safari Park blast: In strange request, police asked to book US diplomat

We think the US diplomat was directly involved, says ISO's Qasim Naqvi.

KARACHI: The case of Safari Park bomb blast has hit a roadblock as the aggrieved party has insisted the police book a rather unusual suspect: the US Consul General in Karachi.

This is why the case has not been registered for five days.

Two men were killed and another 13 were wounded when a powerful roadside bomb exploded on University Road in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on August 17. The 2.5-kg bomb targeted a bus carrying the participants of a downtown rally organised by the Imamia Student Organisation (ISO) – a welfare outfit of the Shia community. The Al-Quds rally is held every year on the last Friday of Ramazan to condemn Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands.

According to the police, the request to register the case has been submitted, but it was sent to the “higher authorities” for approval due to its “unusual nature”.

In Pakistan, conspiracy theorists often blame the US and the “Zionist lobby” for a plethora of ills. A nexus of the US, Israel and Indian spy agencies and even the ‘foreign hand’ is said to be secretly funding terrorist activities in Pakistan to destabilise the “strategically important” country.

A man identified as Nawaz, a cousin of victim Imtiaz Ali, has asked the police to nominate the US Consul General in Karachi and seven militant outfits under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 for the attack on the Ahle Tasheeh or Shia men.

“The activists of some banned [militant] organisations, including the Punjabi Taliban, working at the behest of the US Consul General in Karachi, were involved in the attack,” argued ISO’s Qasim Naqvi. “We think the US diplomat was directly involved.”

He drew similarities between the bus attack and the December 2010 bomb blast inside Karachi University, suspecting the involvement of some former university students. The police have so far refused to register the case and the ISO has decided to take the matter directly to court, Naqvi said.

Gulshan SHO Rana Haseeb told The Express Tribune that the police did not refuse to register the case. They are waiting to acquire a legal opinion.

The law enforcers suspect the involvement of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in the blast but so far have no conclusive evidence.

Another victim dies

A man who was injured by the roadside explosion succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

Fazlur Rahman was the driver of the car owned by Syed Suleman, who died on the spot, SHO Haseeb said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2012.