Attempt at bombing CIA office foiled

Police foiled an attempt to target CIA office in Islamabad when they discovered a parcel bomb concealed inside books.

ISLAMABAD: Police on Monday foiled an attempt to target the office of Criminal Investigations Agency (CIA) with a parcel bomb and arrested an alleged terrorist. Police personnel recovered a parcel containing two books which were connected to each other by cable and fitted with a detonator.

Over four kilogrammes of explosives were concealed in the books, the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) officials said. “It had to go off on opening any of the books and could easily destroy a room or even beyond,” said a BDS expert.

Police said a suspected terrorist, Muhammad Rafeeq, came to the office of the CIA with a parcel containing two books and requested a meeting with the Deputy Superintendant of Police (DSP) CIA Abdur Razzaq.

He told the security guards deputed at the entrance that the DSP had asked for the books that he had come to deliver. He was told that the officer was not in, upon which he asked the guards to deliver the parcel to him. However, the security guards refused to keep the parcel without the permission of the DSP and asked the suspect to wait until they checked with their officer. Upon hearing the reply from the security guards, the suspect tried to escape, leaving the parcel at the gate of the CIA office, but was arrested by the police guards.

During investigations, the 44-year-old suspect Rafeeq revealed that he was involved in suicide attacks on the office of the World Food Programme (WFP) in October last year. He told investigators that the suicide bomber who had targeted the Naval Complex Gate in Islamabad last year was his son, Muhammad Hanif.

Rafeeq was a resident of Orakzai Agency and was an active member of a local chapter of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He had a Bachelor’s degree and had also served as reader in the courts of many Taliban commanders.

He had been involved in more than seven high-profile kidnappings for ransom and was also responsible for recruiting young boys for suicide bombings which he had started with his own son. He revealed to the investigators that his son had to target a car coming out of Zardari House and went into Naval Headquarters mistakenly.

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