"This is Dire Revenge for the killing of Muslims by the Syrian president and Iran," said Ali bin Sufyan, front man for Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ...
(LeJ), an Islamist group whose sectarian ideology is closely aligned with Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
. He was speaking to Rooters by phone.
Earlier this week Rooters reported that a Shi'ite unit of Pak fighters known as the Zeinabiyoun were joining the war against Islamic State in Syria. Many come from Parachinar, which has a large Shi'ite population, unusual in Sunni-majority Pakistain.
Regional sources said there were hundreds of Paks fighting in Syria.
Sufyan said Parachinar residents should not travel to Iran or Syria to fight in the war there on behalf of the Shi'ites.
The explicit linkage of the Pakistain bombing to the war in Syria will alarm Pak officials, who are keen to play down reports that Islamic State is seeking to establish a foothold in their country.
A couple of small Lion of Islam groups who splintered from the Pak Taliban pledged allegiance to Islamic State, but they have not had much impact.
But across the border in Afghanistan, murderous Moslems who split from the Taliban and pledged allegiance to IS have established training camps, taken over territory and clashed with the Taliban.
Like Islamic State, which set up a cross-border caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, the LeJ wants to kill or expel Pakistain's minority Shi'ites and establish a Sunni theocracy.
The LeJ had once enjoyed the open support of Pakistain's powerful spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence
...the Pak military
intelligenceagency that controls the military -- heads of ISI typically get promoted into the Chief of Army Staff position. It serves as a general command center for favored turban groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, tries to influence the politix of neighboring countries, and carries out a (usually) low-level war against India in Kashmir...
, but the group suffered a series of setbacks this year.
The leader of LeJ, his two sons and several brass hats were rubbed out in police custody this July; police say they were trying to escape. Last month another top LeJ commander was shot by police while in jug.
But Sunday's bombing, if carried out by the LeJ, is proof that the group can still mount devastating attacks.
Parachinar local government official Riaz Hussain said Sunday's blast targeted crowds at a market.
"The corpse count has reached 24 and 70 are maimed," said Amjad Ali Khan, the political head of
Kurram Agency...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora...
. Parachinar is the capital of Kurram.
"Some of the injured are at death's door," said Shafiq Hussain, a health worker at the Agency Headquarters Hospital Parachinar.