Tanoli targetted: Man released for want of evidence behind earlier attack, says police

The same group was involved in the Dec 2013 attack on Shafiq Tanoli.

KARACHI: The police investigators have revealed that Azizullah Shamzai, the operational chief of a splinter group of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Karachi, is behind the deadly attack on police officer Shafiq Tanoli.

Tanoli, an encounter specialist, was killed along with three others in a deadly bomb blast near his house at Pakhtun Chowk in the Old Sabzi Mandi area on Thursday morning. This was the eighth attempt on his life.



Four months ago on December 20, 2013, Tanoli was severely injured in an attack on the same spot and the police investigators revealed that the same group of people is behind both the attacks. Shamzai, the chief operational commander of TTP’s Mohmand Chapter is believed to have masterminded both the attacks.

In September 2013, when the Karachi targeted operation had recently kicked off, Shamzai was apprehended by the Rangers in a routine raid conducted in Orangi Town. The law enforcers had found two hand grenades in his possession for which the police indicted him in an FIR registered under Section ¾ of the Explosives Act and for attempted murder. The police could not, unfortunately, provide sufficient evidence to prove him guilty and he was released on bail. His whereabouts are unknown ever since.

“We had no idea about his true identity as he had provided us with a fake name - Aziz alias Haji Sahib,” the former Pirabad police station’s SHO Abdul Moid had told The Express Tribune in February this year.

The Shamzai group is accused of killing more than 55 police personnel in Karachi. Even after his release, he is believed to have rejoined his group and carried out a bomb attack targeting the police inspector, Tanoli, in Old Sabzi Mandi.

Tanoli was aware of Shamzai’s involvement in the previous attack and had accused the police department of negligence after they let him go.

“The intelligence agencies had also warned Tanoli in a letter that Shamzai was plotting to target him [Tanoli] again to avenge the killings and arrests of his group members,” said Special Investigation Unit’s police chief, SP Farooq Awan, while talking to The Express Tribune.

The case has yet to be registered at the police station.

Accepting responsibility

The TTP Mohmand chapter chief, Omar Khalid Khurasani, had also claimed responsibility of Tanoli’s killing by issuing a statement on Thursday. The police investigators have also conducted raids at the hideouts but they have yet to make any arrests. The same group had also claimed responsibility for the bomb blast that killed SP Chaudhry Aslam Khan. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2014.