Daily Times

The suicide bomber behind the horrific Mastung attack has been identified as Hafiz Nawaz, a resident of Abbottabad, the Senate Standing Committee on Interior was informed on Thursday.

A total of 149 people including election candidate Nawab Siraj Raisani were martyred in a suicide bombing at a corner meeting in Mastung on July 13.

Briefing the committee, IG Balochistan Mohsin Hassan Butt said the suicide bomber had traveled from Abbottabad to Sindh where he linked up with a banned organisation. The suicide bomber was part of Daesh and had been affiliated with the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi as well, he said. “The facilitators of the attack have also been detected,” he added. The IG Balochistan told the committee that Daesh had established a strong presence in Afghanistan and was carrying out terrorist attacks in Balochistan from there. According to him, Mufti Haider and Hafiz Naeem were local commanders of Daesh and efforts were underway to arrest them.

Counter-Terrorism Department DIG Aitzaz Goraya said that the suicide bomber was facilitated by a local resident who had been living in Mastung.

Goraya said that the suicide bomber’s brothers and sisters went to Afghanistan two years back, adding that the bomber was identified through his fingerprints.

Meanwhile, Additional IG Khyber Pakhtunkhwa informed the committee that the person at the centre of a suicide bombing which claimed the life of Awami National Party (ANP) leader Haroon Bilour and 21 others in Peshawar had been arrested.

Bilour was martyred when a suicide bomber struck an ANP election meeting on July 10.

Published in Daily Times, July 20^th 2018.