Teams of police, Rangers and intelligence officials carried out their investigation separately. At one point, the tension between the investigation teams was so intense that Rangers personnel posted at the gate prevented a senior police official, Crime Investigation Department’s SSP Fayyaz Khan, from entering. After an exchange of hot words and a wait of half an hour, he was allowed to enter on the intervention of a senior Ranger official. However, two of Khan’s guards were kept waiting outside until the VIPs, including home minister Zulfiqar Mirza, left the scene.
Investigators kept mum about the possible culprits behind the latest attack and most senior officials present at the scene went on air saying that it was still early to guess who was behind the attack.
However, a senior police officer, who has expertise in cracking terrorism cases, told The Express Tribune at the shrine that for now all clues point in the direction of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). “I can see their signature all over this place,” he said.
He said it was also important that just two days back a senior member of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) Maulvi Ameen was killed in Karachi. Deoband clerics had declared that Ameen’s murder was the result of an ongoing feud with Barelvi maulvis over Noor masjid in Jubilee market. Ameen was its pesh imam.
The officer declined, however, to go into details and only said that the suicide attacks could be an escalation of the battle between the two Sunni sects. “We are investigating that angle,” he said.
A senior intelligence official said the LeJ, which spawned out of the SSP, has a history of attacks on Shia and Barelvi sects. “Over the years there has been increasing cooperation among the LeJ, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and al Qaeda,” he said. He gave an example of Qari Ilyas, also known as the Punjabi Taliban, Ilyas Kashmiri and Qari Zafar, who under the leadership of al Qaeda, trained their cadres in Waziristan and have sent them on suicide missions all over the country.
The intelligence official said that Noor masjid has been on their ‘radar’ for many years and in the recent months the feud between the Deobandis and Sunnis over the mosque and a host of other issues have reached dangerous levels. “This attack could be a reaction to the murder of Maulvi Ameen,” he said. Also, apart from the saint Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s grave, a revered Barelvi leader, Maulana Noorani is also buried at the shrine. In fact, the second attack that took place was almost next to this particular grave’s site.
The intelligence official pointed out that Auqaf officials, who are responsible for the internal security, were asked to install CCTV cameras at the shrine. “When we had sealed the shrine about a year ago, in view of threats of a similar attack which we witnessed today, we wrote the (Auqaf) administrator to install high-definition cameras,” he said, adding that despite the fact that shrines such as this one generate millions of rupees, their warning fell on deaf ears.
Mohammad Rafee, who introduced himself as the head of shrine committee, confirmed that no CCTV cameras had been installed. SP Crime Investigation Agency Lahore, Omer Warak, who investigated the Data Darbar attack, said there was no difference between the LeJ, SSP, TTP and al Qaeda. “We too found out that there is a strong nexus between them.” Warak’s unit blamed the Darbar attack on the LeJ backed by al Qaeda elements in Waziristan.
Analyst Khaled Ahmed said that for that past six years al Qaeda and the Taliban have been increasing their attacks on shrines. “All of them belong to the Deoband cadre who openly denounce Barelvis and Shias for their reverence for shrines,” he told The Express Tribune, adding that most of the Deoband clerics in mosques and madrassas all over the country openly ridicule the culture of shrines as unIslamic.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 8th, 2010.
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