Suspect involved in 2007 Karsaz attack killed in encounter

Believed to prepare suicide bomber in 2007 attack; killed in encounter with Karachi police in Manghopir

KARACHI: The man who prepared a suicide bomber for the 2007 Karsaz blast on former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed in a police encounter in Karachi on Monday.

During a Crime Investigation Department encounter in Manghopir, Firdos Khan, who was affiliated with the defunct Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Mehsood group, was killed.

However, his accomplices managed to flee from the scene.

Earlier, the Karachi police claimed to have arrested two militants involved in the attack as well.

The arrests were disclosed by the Crime Investigation Department’s SSP Usman Bajwa on October 31 and the suspects were identified as Jamshed and Abid. They were arrested during a raid conducted in Shah Latif Colony. SSP Bajwa claimed that Jamshed revealed that his group was also involved in the suicide attack on Bilal Shaikh, who had been serving as the chief security officer for former president Asif Ali Zardari since 2008.