Firstpost
Published By: Praveen Swami
The bombing came
hours after Lashkar chief Hafiz Saeed was produced a Lahore court to face
terror-financing charges.
Talha Saeed, a second
source said, was waiting to speak at the religious meeting when the explosion
occurred, even as another Lashkar preacher was addressing the gathering.
The victims, a
Lahore-based journalist said, were all supporters of the the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and
regular visitors to the Ali-o-Murtaza mosque.
New Delhi: Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed’s
son, Talha Saeed, narrowly escaped assassination in a bombing on Lahore’s
fringes on Saturday evening, three Pakistani sources familiar with an ongoing
investigation into the attack have told Firstpost. At least seven
other Lashkar supporters were critically injured in the attack, the sources
said, and one person killed.
The
bombing, targeting a religious meeting at the Jamia Masjid Ali-o-Murtaza on
Muhammad Ali Road in Lahore’s Township neighbourhood, was earlier described by
Pakistani as an accidental gas cylinder explosion.
But, one
source familiar with the ongoing Punjab Police investigation, said the steel
shutter on the air-conditioner repair store where the explosion took shows
extensive shrapnel damage. “This kind of damage is typical of bombs packed
with ball bearings,” he said. “It also makes clear the shop was shuttered-up
when the explosion took place.”
Photographs
taken inside the Jamia Masjid, obtained by Firstpost, also reveal
damaged furniture and overturned tables.
Talha
Saeed, a second source said, was waiting to speak at the religious meeting when
the explosion occurred, even as another Lashkar preacher was addressing the
gathering. He was treated for his injuries, the source said, at the Jinnah
Hospital, a top Lahore facility, some five kilometres from the Ali-o-Murtaza
mosque.
Police
had said Hafiz Mahmood, a 22-year-old air-conditioning handyman, was killed in
the explosion. Twenty-five-year old Ahsaan, 20-year-old Abdul Ghafoor
22-year-old Abu Bakr, 60-year-old Muhammad Afaq and 40-year-old
Muhammad Aslam were also reported injured in the bombing.
Families
of at least four other people, the second source said, had said their relatives
were seriously injured in the assassination attempt.
The
victims, a Lahore-based journalist said, were all supporters of the
Lashkar-e-Taiba’s parent organisation, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and regular visitors
to the Ali-o-Murtaza mosque.
Local
media, the journalist said, were instructed by police not to pursue the bombing
story beyond the police account of events, nor to report Punjab Governor
Mohammad Sarwar’s visit to the bombing victims on Sunday. “The media
climate in Pakistan is such these days,” he said, referring to a string of
attacks on journalists and newsrooms, “that it’s wise to listen to such
advice”. “Lashkar spokespersons also called up to deny they were holding any
gathering at all in the area,” he added.
The
bombing came hours after Lashkar chief Hafiz Saeed was produced a Lahore court
to face terror-financing charges—his first prosecution for a terrorism-related
criminal case. The case was, however, deferred to 11 December since police
inexplicably failed to produce co-accused Malik Zafar Iqbal.
Islamabad
has been under intense pressure from the Financial Action Task Force to shut
down the financing of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and could face sanctions if it
fails to meet criteria set down by the multinational organisation by early
February.
Earlier
this year, Pakistan petitioned the United Nations Security Council—which has
blacklisted the Lashkar-e-Taiba for its links to Al Qaeda and the Taliban—to
allow Hafiz Saeed to withdraw subsistence funds of ₹1.5 lakh a month from
accounts frozen by authorities.
Lashkar
leaders in Pakistan, one source said, have been divided on attributing the attack
to hostile intelligence services, like India’s Research and Analysis Wing, or
to divisions within the organisation. Talha Saeed’s designation as his father’s
successor and his control of Lashkar finances have angered senior leaders in
the terrorist organisation, the source said.
“The fact
that the Lashkar’s usually very tight security was breached suggests all is not
well in the organisation,” said London-based scholar Ayesha Siddiqa, an expert
on jihadist groups in the organisation. “It’s obviously impossible to say who
the perpetrator of the attack maybe, but it’s clear all is not well within its
hierarchy.”
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