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| Afghanistan/South Asia | |
| Ashura attack: Sindh police alert to Quetta went unheeded | |
| 2004-03-12 | |
| EFL Days before the start of Muharram, the Sindh police had warned its counterparts in Quetta of possible trouble during the month in that city. The warning from Sindh followed the arrest by Karachi police of two hardcore militants of the proscribed Lashkar-e Jhangvi who revealed the group was planning attacks during Muharram. Now, when a tribunal is collecting accounts of around 180 witnesses to the Quetta attack on Youm-e-Ashur which killed 50 people and left more than 100 mourners injured, Sindh police officials told TFT authorities in Quetta had been warned of strong possibility of an attack in that city. âWe donât think the warning was taken seriously or security measures put in place in line with the level of warning,â says a police official in Karachi. On February 17, two weeks before the Quetta massacre, Karachi police arrested two religious militants, including one suspected of involvement in the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The two men, Sajid Jabbar alias Budha, and Mohammad Athar alias Khalid Memon were arrested in an overnight raid and belong to the Deobandi-sectarian outlawed group Lashkar-e Jhangvi. Police suspects Budha of involvement in the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Pearl as well as several other militant attacks. âHe carries a head money of Rs500,000,â says an officer. This officer says Budha was a close associate of Asif Ramzi, another suspect in the murder of Pearl, who accidentally got killed in December 2002 in Karachi while handling explosives. Investigations revealed that Budha and Memon were planning fresh attacks in Karachi and elsewhere. The police also seized a huge amount of weapons and explosives from their possession. Budha, who is the chief of the provincial wing of LJ is wanted in at least 10 separate terror attacks, including mailing parcel bombs to senior police officers. The two militants also gave information of earlier unknown Muslim United Army, a conglomeration of some other jihadi and sectarian outfits. The MUA (whose activities have previously been reported by The Friday Times) has taken responsibility for the parcel-bomb attacks in October 2002 and attacks on 21 petrol stations owned and run by the Anglo-Dutch Shell Company. Meanwhile, investigators in Quetta have found the remains of two suspects in a house and recovered ammunition and weapons engraved with the name of LJ and slogans eulogising the banned Deobandi-sectarian terrorist organisation.
Qari Saifullah Akhtar, who headed Harkat-e Jihad-e Islami with its base in Afghanistan, was wanted for his alleged role in the unsuccessful attempt to dislodge the government of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Major-Gen Zaheerul Islam Abbasi and Brig Mustanser Billah were tried and convicted by a military court in the same case. Most of the accused on the list have either been killed in police encounters or have since been captured. Police sources say the LJ factions led by Akram Lahori and Asif Ramzi have not yet lost their strength despite Lahoriâs arrest and Ramziâs mysterious death. âWe have information that they are regrouping and getting new recruits from the smaller towns and rural areas across Pakistan,â says an intelligence officer. | |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |