Shadi Khan village mourns its favourite son
Forensic experts struggled to collect vital evidence as rubble could not be removed
The late Khanzada’s Dera lies in ruins a day after the suicide attack in Attock. PHOTO: AZAM KHAN/ EXPRESS
ATTOCK:
A pall of gloom hung over Shadi Khan village a day after two suicide bombers killed 19 people, including Punjab Home Minister Col (retd) Shuja Khanzada. The entire village was in mourning. Locals visited the bereaved families to offer condolences amid a shutter-down strike in the local market.
The blast had ripped the peripheral wall of the Dera (guest house) of Khanzada that caused the roof to collapse as he met people who had come to offer condolences on the death of his cousin. The Dera lay in ruins, with the heavy concrete roof fallen flat and congealed blood still visible on the bricks and ground. A large number of curious villagers turned up to see the destruction caused by the bombing.
Even 36 hours after the blast, investigators could not collect vital forensic evidence buried under the rubble. A team of forensic experts stood idle, waiting for heavy machinery to clear the debris.
Read: Shuja Khanzada, the spearhead of Punjab's anti-terror movement
“We have collected evidence from the sides of the building as well as from where our equipment could reach,” said a member of the Punjab Forensic Science Agency team. “However, primary evidence is buried under the rubble which requires heavy machinery to remove.” Three small tunnels were dug to retrieve casualties from underneath the rubble.
Khanzada had won accolades for leading the anti-terror purge in Punjab. “He was my hero and a great source of inspiration. He preferred to die among the masses rather than living behind tight security,” said Salim Khanzada, the only son of the late home minister of Punjab. “I’ll follow in the footsteps of my father,” he said while speaking to media persons who had come to offer condolences.
Located on the bank of the Indus River, Khanzada’s Dera is a public place. It was the nucleus of political, social and religious activities of local villagers. With no security checkpoints or barricades, it was accessible to everyone. This was because all villagers in Shadi Khan, which comprises nearly 400 houses, belong to the Pashtun Yousafzai tribe and are known to each other.
The Dera also houses a largest mosque where villagers offer their Jumma and Eid prayers.
Hammad Khan, a college student, lost his father, Fayyaz Khan, in Sunday’s blast. “I dropped off my father at the residence of Khanzada sahib and minutes later an explosion went off. I rushed back only to find the building turned into a heap of rubble,” Hammad told The Express Tribune. Hammad managed to retrieve his father’s body with the help of other villagers 45 minutes after the blast.
Lax security
Besides local villagers, federal and provincial lawmakers and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Governor Sardar Mehtab Abbasi also visited Khanzada’s house to offer condolences to his family. The younger brother said Khanzada was careless about his security and did not like heavy police deployment at his residence.
“This shows his confidence and trust in the people of his constituency,” he said. “Similarly, he [Khanzada] rarely shared with family the threats he received [from militant groups].” Punjab police chief Mushtaq Sukhera said on Sunday that he could not rule out the involvement of banned sectarian militant groups in the attack on Khanzada.
Read:‘Highest civil award will be sought for Khanzada’
Villager Irfan Khan said Khanzada had directed his security protocol not to use sirens while he was driving through busy areas. “A humble and thorough gentlemen, he used to sit on the ground with fellow villagers and listen to their problems,” Irfan said. “He never gave the impression that he was holding an important portfolio in the Punjab cabinet.”
Leading factors in investigations
Shadi Khan village is in Hazro tehsil of Attock. Majority of residents are Pashto speakers while a small minority speaks Hindko. Shadi Khan, together with 25 other villages, is in the precincts of Rango police station. There are 23 madrassas (Islamic seminaries) in the area, while only two terror suspects enlisted on the fourth schedule of police live within the limits of Rango police station.
“Some seven seminaries were surveyed by the Punjab police during its ongoing drive to scrutinise the people studying there,” said a senior police official present at the crime scene.
Some sectarian groups have a strong presence in the area as their flags could be seen atop shops in the local market. And graffiti in favour of sectarian groups is splashed on almost every second wall in the village.
Read: Shuja Khanzada was on militants' watchlist for retaliation
Two mutilated bodies are kept in the office of Tehsil Municipal Administration. And investigators believe at least one of them was the suicide bomber who had detonated the bomb at Khanzada’s Dera. The late home minister campaigned against militants and his recent statement against sectarian hatemongers was talk of the town.
According to a senior police official, a delegation of Ulema had visited Khanzada recently and he told them categorically that he would not spare those spreading hatred in the name of religion. However, the local media tweaked and twisted his statement, prompting Khanzada to visit the Ulema in their respective madrassas to offer an apology.
FIR registered
The FIR of the suicide bombing was registered on Monday at the Counter Terrorism Department police station in Rawalpindi on the complaint of Ghulam Shabir, the SHO of Rango police station. The case was registered under Sections 302, 327, 436 and 427 of the PPC read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, Section 16 of the Protection of Pakistan Act and Section ¾ of the Explosives Act.
The FIR states that the bombing occurred at 11am on August 16 and the perpetrators attempted to undermine the country’s sovereignty and to spread fear among the masses.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2015.
A pall of gloom hung over Shadi Khan village a day after two suicide bombers killed 19 people, including Punjab Home Minister Col (retd) Shuja Khanzada. The entire village was in mourning. Locals visited the bereaved families to offer condolences amid a shutter-down strike in the local market.
The blast had ripped the peripheral wall of the Dera (guest house) of Khanzada that caused the roof to collapse as he met people who had come to offer condolences on the death of his cousin. The Dera lay in ruins, with the heavy concrete roof fallen flat and congealed blood still visible on the bricks and ground. A large number of curious villagers turned up to see the destruction caused by the bombing.
Even 36 hours after the blast, investigators could not collect vital forensic evidence buried under the rubble. A team of forensic experts stood idle, waiting for heavy machinery to clear the debris.
Read: Shuja Khanzada, the spearhead of Punjab's anti-terror movement
“We have collected evidence from the sides of the building as well as from where our equipment could reach,” said a member of the Punjab Forensic Science Agency team. “However, primary evidence is buried under the rubble which requires heavy machinery to remove.” Three small tunnels were dug to retrieve casualties from underneath the rubble.
Khanzada had won accolades for leading the anti-terror purge in Punjab. “He was my hero and a great source of inspiration. He preferred to die among the masses rather than living behind tight security,” said Salim Khanzada, the only son of the late home minister of Punjab. “I’ll follow in the footsteps of my father,” he said while speaking to media persons who had come to offer condolences.
Located on the bank of the Indus River, Khanzada’s Dera is a public place. It was the nucleus of political, social and religious activities of local villagers. With no security checkpoints or barricades, it was accessible to everyone. This was because all villagers in Shadi Khan, which comprises nearly 400 houses, belong to the Pashtun Yousafzai tribe and are known to each other.
The Dera also houses a largest mosque where villagers offer their Jumma and Eid prayers.
Hammad Khan, a college student, lost his father, Fayyaz Khan, in Sunday’s blast. “I dropped off my father at the residence of Khanzada sahib and minutes later an explosion went off. I rushed back only to find the building turned into a heap of rubble,” Hammad told The Express Tribune. Hammad managed to retrieve his father’s body with the help of other villagers 45 minutes after the blast.
Lax security
Besides local villagers, federal and provincial lawmakers and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Governor Sardar Mehtab Abbasi also visited Khanzada’s house to offer condolences to his family. The younger brother said Khanzada was careless about his security and did not like heavy police deployment at his residence.
“This shows his confidence and trust in the people of his constituency,” he said. “Similarly, he [Khanzada] rarely shared with family the threats he received [from militant groups].” Punjab police chief Mushtaq Sukhera said on Sunday that he could not rule out the involvement of banned sectarian militant groups in the attack on Khanzada.
Read:‘Highest civil award will be sought for Khanzada’
Villager Irfan Khan said Khanzada had directed his security protocol not to use sirens while he was driving through busy areas. “A humble and thorough gentlemen, he used to sit on the ground with fellow villagers and listen to their problems,” Irfan said. “He never gave the impression that he was holding an important portfolio in the Punjab cabinet.”
Leading factors in investigations
Shadi Khan village is in Hazro tehsil of Attock. Majority of residents are Pashto speakers while a small minority speaks Hindko. Shadi Khan, together with 25 other villages, is in the precincts of Rango police station. There are 23 madrassas (Islamic seminaries) in the area, while only two terror suspects enlisted on the fourth schedule of police live within the limits of Rango police station.
“Some seven seminaries were surveyed by the Punjab police during its ongoing drive to scrutinise the people studying there,” said a senior police official present at the crime scene.
Some sectarian groups have a strong presence in the area as their flags could be seen atop shops in the local market. And graffiti in favour of sectarian groups is splashed on almost every second wall in the village.
Read: Shuja Khanzada was on militants' watchlist for retaliation
Two mutilated bodies are kept in the office of Tehsil Municipal Administration. And investigators believe at least one of them was the suicide bomber who had detonated the bomb at Khanzada’s Dera. The late home minister campaigned against militants and his recent statement against sectarian hatemongers was talk of the town.
According to a senior police official, a delegation of Ulema had visited Khanzada recently and he told them categorically that he would not spare those spreading hatred in the name of religion. However, the local media tweaked and twisted his statement, prompting Khanzada to visit the Ulema in their respective madrassas to offer an apology.
FIR registered
The FIR of the suicide bombing was registered on Monday at the Counter Terrorism Department police station in Rawalpindi on the complaint of Ghulam Shabir, the SHO of Rango police station. The case was registered under Sections 302, 327, 436 and 427 of the PPC read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, Section 16 of the Protection of Pakistan Act and Section ¾ of the Explosives Act.
The FIR states that the bombing occurred at 11am on August 16 and the perpetrators attempted to undermine the country’s sovereignty and to spread fear among the masses.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2015.