Lashkare Jhangvi and Tehrike Taliban involved in Karachi blasts

LAHORE: The twin suicide attacks in Pakistani port city of Karachi on February 5 which killed 30 people seem to have been jointly coordinated by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan – two al-Qaeda linked anti-Shia terrorist group operating in Pakistan with the help of their lethal suicide squad.

The Pakistani authorities investigating the deadly Karachi suicide attacks say the explosives used by two human bombs on February 5 have striking resemblance with the material used in the December 28, 2009 suicide attack targeting a Shia procession in Karachi which killed at least 45 people. And the investigators have already concluded that the Ashura day suicide bombing was carried out by the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi while working in tandem with the pro-Taliban and largely anti-Shia Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) led by Commander Baitullah Mehsud. Well-informed circles in the ministry of interior say the investigating agencies have got sufficient evidence to show that the al-Qaeda-linked Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi are closely coordinating with each other to create mayhem in Karachi through their suicide squads which have already been found involved in several major incidents of suicide bombings in Karachi, including the one carried out on December 28, 2009.

The sources say the LeJ is currently led by the most wanted sectarian terrorist Qari Zafar who has become a trusted member of al-Qaeda’s hard-line inner circle due to his acquaintance with Qari Hussain Mehsud, a close aide of Hakeemullah Mehsud and a key commander of the TTP in South Waziristan. Known as the Ustad-e-Fidayeen or the teacher of suicide bombers, Hussain runs camps that train children to become suicide bombers. Qari Zafar, who in fact belongs to Karachi, is not only the suspected mastermind of the September 20, 2008 Marriot Hotel suicide attack in Islamabad, but is also believed to be involved in the December 28, 2009 attack on the Ashura procession in Karachi. Presently operating from his hideout in South Waziristan, Zafar had escaped from the custody of the security agencies in 2007. He is also wanted for questioning in connection with the March 2, 2006 car bomb attack on the US consulate in Karachi.

Following the launching of the military operation in Swat last year against the private army of TTP-linked Maulana Fazlullah, Qari Zafar had trained several human bombs in South Waziristan with the help of Qari Hussain and dispatched them to Karachi. The sources say some of them were entrusted with the task of targeting the Azizabad headquarters of the Altaf Hussain-led Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which is considered to be anti-Taliban. However, the plan could not be materialized due to unprecedented security arrangements outside the heavily guarded MQM headquarters. Most of the major terror attacks carried out in Karachi in the recent past have a common grandmother – the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi which is currently the group of choice for hard-core Pakistani militants who are adamant to pursue their ambitious jehadi agenda.

According to the intelligence findings, three major incidents of suicide bombings in Karachi in 2006 – the suicide blast outside the US Consulate [on March 3, killing American diplomat David Foy], the Nishtar Park massacre [on April 11 which eliminated the entire leadership of the Sunni Tehrik] and the July 14 death of Shia leader Allama Hasan Turabi in a suicide bombing outside his residence – were all carried out by the LeJ and were planned in the South Waziristan tribal agency by none other than Qari Zafar, who is the acting ameer of the LeJ, ever since the arrest of its ameer Muhammad Ajmal alias Akram Lahori, who is now languishing in the Karachi Central Prison.

amir.mir1969@gmail.com