TTP avenged Qari Zafar's death through SIA bomb attack

Lahore, Mar.9 : Monday's bomb attack, which targeted the Special Investigation Agency (SIA) building here killing at least 14 people and injuring over 80 is believed to be the handiwork of the Punjab chapter of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to avenge the killing of its Commander Qari Zafar.

Zafar, the acting chief of the banned terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) was killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan last month.

It is worth mentioning here that the US had announced a bounty of five million dollars on Zafar's head for his alleged involvement in the 2006 car bombing outside the US consulate in Karachi.

Soon after Zafar's death last month, the TTP had announced to seek revenge for its commander's death.

"The Mujahideen will soon take revenge from the Pakistani government for his killing by resorting to suicide bombings anywhere in the country," a self-proclaimed spokesman of the TTP had said while describing Zafar as a 'martyr.'

Officials probing the attack on the SIA building said that initial investigation suggests that the target of the suicide attacker was the office of the Special Investigation Unit (SIU), which initially worked for the Punjab Police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

However, the SIU was later made an autonomous police wing, which worked directly under the Punjab Home Department and was primarily responsible for interrogation of wanted Jihadi and sectarian terrorists nabbed in the province.

Sources said that the SIU had been interrogating some of the key members of Punjab Taliban, who were arrested following leads provided by Dr.Aqil alias Usman, the lone General Headquarters attacker who was caught alive.

Investigators also disclosed that just a few days before Zafar's death, an anti-terrorism court in Karachi had indicted Mohammad Ajmal alias Akram Lahori, the acting chief of the LeJ, in a 2002 murder case, The News reports.