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| India-Pakistan | |
| Gojra tragedy was a pre-planned terrorist attack | |
| 2009-08-06 | |
| [The News (Pak)] A number of bottle bombs, filled with lethal explosive material, were used in the Gojra communal violence, which caused a great loss of life and reduced dozens of houses to ashes. "Credible information and splinters of partly-exploded bottle bombs were collected from the violence-hit area of Gojra," intelligence sources told The News here on Tuesday. They maintained that the explosives-packed bottles caused a huge fire in houses belonging to the Christian families, as many residential units were razed to the ground due to its intensity. "Even the girders of many houses melted within a few hours." Elaborating, the sources said an ordinary match could not melt iron-made girders (used in the construction of upper portion of a single-storey house). "We did not find even a single complete form of the bottle bomb, as there were only pieces. "Involvement of a foreign hand or a banned outfit is under investigation according to the latest information collected from Gojra," they added. Two more victims of communal riots succumbed to their injuries on Tuesday. Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti confirmed the development. "Highly dangerous explosives were used in the form of bottle bombs and the destruction was mainly due to this kind of sabotage activity carried out mostly by members of some banned religious outfit." Bhatti ruled out an immediate withdrawal of Rangers from the violence-hit areas. The minister said an inquiry had been started to expose those responsible for the incident. "The inquiry will be made public." Bhatti did not blame the Punjab government, but said the DCO, DPO and officials concerned were responsible for not checking the spread of violence. When asked about an update, the minister said nominees in the FIR were being arrested and interrogated. He said the government had decided to build new houses for the affected families in Gojra. "We have been asked by the president and the prime minister that the Centre will build new houses for those who have lost their houses." He said engineers and other relevant officials had been sent to the site at Gojra to submit a comprehensive report within the shortest-possible time to build the houses.
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| Posted by:Fred |