Investigators have identified Abid Hunzala of Rahimyar Khan as the suicide attacker who bombed a Pakistan Air Force bus in Sargodha on November 1 last year, sources told Daily Times on Thursday. They said Hunzala’s links with Lal Masjid in Islamabad were now being probed into. They said Major (r) Ehsanul Haq and his accomplices, who were earlier arrested in connection with the PAF bus blast, had told the Punjab Crime Investigation Department (CID) that they used Hunzala as the suicide bomber to hit the PAF bus. CID deputy inspector general in Karachi, Saud Mirza, also confirmed the development. “I can confirm that we (the CID) have identified the suicide bomber involved in the Sargodha attack as Abid Hunzala,” Mirza said. He added that security personnel tried hard to locate Hunzala before the attack but he was not in touch with his family members or friends in his hometown.
Links to Lal Masjid: The sources said investigators had learnt that Hunzala had been studying at a madrassa in IslamabadÂ’s Sector G-11/2 and had joined the clerics of the Lal Masjid. They said Hunzala was arrested from Lal Masjid during the operation against its clerics that ended on July 12, 2007. He was later released with other prisoners, they added. The sources said Hunzala had already been identified by the Sondh CID as a potential bomber on September 23, 2007, almost a month before the attack in Sargodha.
Letter recovered: The CID had also recovered a letter written by Hunzala to his wife from his hideout in Malir, Karachi, advising her to remarry after his martyrdom since he was “going on a God’s mission,” they said, adding that three suicide jackets were also found. Taranda Muhammad Panah, in Rahimyar Khan, was the address mentioned on the letter, they said. Hunzala had not mentioned the details of his assignment in the letter and the CID were unable to arrest anyone from Malir, they said. Information of a possible suicide attack was distributed to all law-enforcement agencies across the country and Hunzala’s brother, Arif, was arrested from Rahimyar Khan shortly after the seizure of the suicide jackets and the letter, they said.
The sources said Arif had told CID investigators that his father Ali Ahmed had also been “martyred” in Afghanistan while “waging jihad against the enemies of Islam,” and one of his brothers was “martyred” in “Jihad-e-Kashmir”. They said Arif could not have provided information about Hunzala’s whereabouts since the brothers were not in touch. Arif was later released, they said.