Law enforcement agencies believe they have identified two men involved in the attack on a Quetta imambargah on July 4 that killed 51 people, government sources told Daily Times on Saturday. According to sources, Mufti Sagheer, a former member of the Tehrik Khudamul Islam (Jabbar group), and Osama Zaid, former Lashkar-e-Jhangvi activist, plotted the terrorist attack on the Mekangi Road imambargah. âA group of five planned it. Three of them died during the attack while Sagheer and Osama are still alive,â sources said.
| Too important to the movement to decompose, y'see... |
The BBC received statements, purportedly by the attackers and recorded before July 4, claiming responsibility for the attack on behalf of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam. Witnesses said the attackers faces were covered with JUI flags. As soon as the BBC broadcast their statements, JUI (F) head Maulana Fazlur Rehman denied the terrorists had links with his party or had ever been Jamiat activists. He alleged that the three were of the 41 Sipah-e-Sahaba activists the government released at the behest of Maulana Azam Tariq. He pointed out that the suicide attackers might have used the JUI flags to mislead people.
| I'd actually tend to agree with Fazl on that one. The attack reeks of Sipah or Jhangvi â not that there's any difference between the two... |
Sources said the investigation team is not ignoring the possibility of an âexternal handâ behind the event and searching for links within the terrorist organisations or of their leaders with the Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and other agencies.
| I suspect RAW involvement is also wishful thinking... |
Mr Sagheer and Mr Zaid were reported seen in Quetta on the day of the attack and in Afghanistan a few days prior to the attack. Mr Sagheer is said to have been an administrator of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) training camps in Afghanistan. He got militancy training in Al-Badr camps in Afghanistan and later joined the Harkat al Jihad ul Islami (HUJI). When the HUJI broke up, he joined the Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil group, also known as the Harkatul Mujahideen (HM). He later joined the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JM). He was among the fourteen leaders expelled by Maulana Masood Azhar in April 2003. They were accused of sectarian killings. Mr Sagheer had links with Sipah-e-Sahaba and was also an employee of Karachi-based welfare organisation Al Rasheed Trust in Sargodha, his home district. He got his religious education from the Jamia Banoria in Karachi. He reportedly served the LJ and JM at the same time. Sources said the TKI (Jabbar) and LJ had been cooperating and both were responsible for attacks on churches and missionary institutes in Pakistan. |