Tag Archives: Suicide Bomber

Suicide bomber kills 46 at Afghanistan mosque – state news agency

KABUL (Reuters) -A suicide bomber attacked a mosque in Afghanistan’s northeastern Kunduz province on Friday, killing 46 people and wounding more than 140, the state-run Bakhtar news agency said.

Video footage showed bodies surrounded by debris inside the mosque that is used by people from the minority Shi’ite Muslim community.

No group immediately claimed responsibility. The blast follows several attacks, including one at a mosque in Kabul, in recent weeks, some of which have been claimed by the Sunni Muslim militants of Islamic State.

The attacks have underscored security challenges for the Taliban, which took over the country in August and have since carried out operations against Islamic State cells in Kabul.

“This afternoon, an explosion took place in a mosque of our Shiite compatriots … as a result of which a number of our compatriots were martyred and wounded,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter.

Bakhtar news agency, run by the ministry of information, said 46 people were killed and 143 wounded in the blast.

(Reporting by Kabul and Islamabad newsrooms; Writing by Charlotte Greenfield and Alasdair Pal; editing by Philippa Fletcher and Andrew Heavens)

Philippine president suggests church bombing was ‘suicide’ attack

President Rodrigo Duterte speaks during a ceremony marking the return of the three Balangiga bells taken by the U.S. military as war booty 117 years ago, at Balangiga, Eastern Samar in central Philippines December 15, 2018. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

By Karen Lema and Neil Jerome Morales

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday twin explosions that killed 20 people in a church on a southern island at the weekend may have been a suicide attack, citing a briefing given to him by military commanders.

Duterte’s comments run counter to statements by military and police officials on Tuesday, who said the bombs inside and outside of the church in Jolo appeared to have been detonated remotely. Security camera footage of suspects believed to have planted the bombs has been shown to media.

If confirmed, it would be one of the first known cases of a suicide attack in the Philippines and would be consistent with details of a claim of responsibility by Islamic State via its Amaq news agency early on Monday.

“It exploded. That is terrorism and suicide. You cannot carry plastic bags, you will be questioned by the military, police when you have backpack,” Duterte said when asked by reporters to clarify an earlier remark.

He added: “But you could see all around bits and pieces of flesh. We even stepped on it.”

Asked separately about Duterte’s comment, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said it was possible the second blast “may have been a suicide bomber”.

“The first bomb that exploded inside the church was apparently left behind by a certain woman,” he said.

“The second bomb that exploded at the entrance about a minute and a half after, may have been a suicide bomber as indicated by body parts strewn all over,” Lorenzana said.

The bombings came six days after a referendum on autonomy for the mainly Muslim region returned an overwhelming “yes” vote.

More than 100 people were wounded along with the 20 killed in Jolo in what was one of the deadliest attacks in recent years in a region long plagued by instability.

Islamic State said last year it was behind what it called a suicide bombing, when a device was detonated by the driver of a van when he was stopped at an remote checkpoint in Basilan. It killed 11 people.

The driver was believed to be a foreigner, and may have triggered the device prematurely, according to security officials, who say the intended target was likely a more populated area.

Duterte said he was certain the militant Abu Sayyaf group was responsible for the church attack and that it was possible, though not certain, that one of the bombers was Indonesian.

He appeared to have some doubts about the mode of the attack, based on the information from a briefing he said he had received at 3 a.m. on Tuesday.

“If not suicide bomber, what? By cellphone? Yes, that is a possibility. But the eyewitnesses said it was the other way around. There could have been a companion, a support system,” he said.

Police believe an Abu Sayyaf faction called Ajang-Ajang carried out the attack in revenge for the deaths of relatives killed during military operations against the group.

Abu Sayyaf is a domestic militant group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State and engages in kidnap for ransom and piracy.

(Writing by Martin Petty; editing by Darren Schuettler)

At least 15 killed as gunmen attack Afghan government building

An Afghan policeman inspects the site of an attack in Jalalabad, Afghanistan July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Parwiz

By Ahmad Sultan and Abdul Qadir Sediqi

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – At least 15 people were killed on Tuesday in Afghanistan’s eastern city of Jalalabad when gunmen stormed a government building, trapping dozens inside after a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance gate, officials and witnesses said.

The attack underlines the country’s dire security situation after 17 years of war, with Islamic State increasingly claiming attacks on civilian targets even as pressure builds for peace talks between the Western-backed government and the Taliban.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, though the Taliban issued a statement denying involvement.

After several hours during which intermittent gunfire and explosions could be heard, provincial government spokesman Attaullah Khogyani said the incident appeared to be over with two gunmen killed and much of the building destroyed.

He said at least 15 people had been killed and 15 wounded although the total may rise as rescue workers search the site. Sohrab Qaderi, a member of the local provincial council, said eight had been killed and as many as 30 wounded.

One witness, a passerby named Obaidullah, said the attack began when a black car with three occupants pulled up at the entrance to a building used by the department of refugee affairs and a gunman emerged, firing around him.

One attacker blew himself up at the gate and two gunmen entered the building, in an area close to shops and government offices, he added.

Minutes later, the car blew up, wounding people in the street, Obaidullah said.

“We saw several people wounded and helped to carry them away,” he added.

As security forces cordoned off the area, gunshots and what appeared to be hand grenade explosions could be heard as a cloud of black smoke drifted into the sky.

Sohrab Qaderi, a member of the local provincial council, said about 40 people appeared to have been caught inside the building, which caught fire early in the attack.

As the attack concluded, it was not immediately clear what had happened to them. Islamic State has claimed a number of recent attacks in the city.

Smoke rises from an area where explosions and gunshots were heard, in Jalalabad city, Afghanistan July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Parwiz

Smoke rises from an area where explosions and gunshots were heard, in Jalalabad city, Afghanistan July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Parwiz

Khogyani said the attack happened during a meeting with NGOs working on refugee-related issues. The head of the department and several other people were taken to safety, he said.

Although it is unclear whether there is any direct connection, Islamic State attacks have picked up as hopes for peace talks between the government and the Taliban have grown in the wake of last month’s three-day ceasefire.

The attacks have been concentrated in Jalalabad, the main city of Nangarhar province, on the border with Pakistan where Islamic State fighters first appeared toward the end of 2014.

The casualties add to a mounting toll in Afghanistan. In the western province of Farah, 11 people were killed when their bus was hit by a roadside bomb, officials said.

Also on Tuesday, unknown attackers seized 22 people from vehicles on a highway linking Kabul and Gardez, a key city in the eastern province of Paktia.

(Additional reporting by Rafiq Shirzad; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

Witnessing blast in Kabul: ‘You can still see the smoke in the pictures’

fghan security forces are seen at the site of a second blast in Kabul, Afghanistan April 30, 2018. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

KABUL (Reuters) – The pictures show journalists killed in the second of two explosions that rocked Kabul during the morning rush hour. They were taken by Reuters photographer Omar Sobhani, 10 or 15 seconds after a suicide bomber, apparently targeting members of the media, detonated his explosives.

In one image, a cameraman from Al Jazeera can be seen kneeling wounded against the kerb, while nearby a journalist from Afghanistan’s Radio Azadi is being helped by an old man who was passing by when the blast went off.

Sobhani, who began working for Reuters as a driver and fixer in 2002 and has been a photographer since 2007, was among the journalists who had raced to cover the initial explosion on Monday morning in the Shashdarak area of central Kabul, not far from the U.S. embassy.

“I had been waiting with other journalists to cover an earlier blast. It was a normal scene. It was about 8:30 in the morning, there were security forces guarding the site of the first blast and quite a few people going to work and we were just waiting with other journalists,” he says.

“Then we heard a huge bang just behind me. I survived because I was standing in front of a concrete pillar that shielded me from the force of the explosion, but I saw all my friends and colleagues on the ground and a lot of them were dead with a few wounded – you can still see the smoke from the explosion in the pictures.”

Afghanistan’s interior ministry said the suicide bomber who detonated the second blast had posed as a media worker, showing a press card to security forces and standing among the gathered journalists before blowing himself up.

Sobhani was slightly wounded, but was able to quickly capture some images of the scene before withdrawing to seek help.

“I was shocked but I could see there was nothing to be done and I shot some pictures immediately before leaving,” he said. “I could feel some pain and there was some shrapnel in my shoulder, which was taken out at the hospital.”

Eight of the journalists were from Afghan outlets: two reporters from the Mashal TV, a cameraman and a reporter working for 1TV, three reporters from Radio Azadi and one from Tolo News, according to the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee.

The French news agency Agence France-Presse said its chief photographer in Afghanistan, Shah Marai, was killed.

For Sobhani and the other journalists at the scene, many of the victims of the attack were people they had worked alongside, covering the bloodshed in Afghanistan, for years.

“The people killed were all innocent people, people just going about their business or journalists just doing their job. They’re showing the truth of what’s happening, it’s not politics, it’s very important so that people can know what’s happening,” he said.

“It’s a challenging job with a lot of problems, you see war and violence all the time, but it’s important to make sure people know. I was very shocked, these were colleagues of mine, and one was a very good friend.”

(Reporting by Omar Sobhani and James Mackenzie; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Gunmen storm Save the Children aid group office in Afghanistan

Afghan police officers take position during a blast and gun fire in Jalalabad, Afghanistan January 24,

By Rafiq Sherzad and Ahmad Sultan

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Gunmen stormed an office of the Save the Children aid agency in Afghanistan’s eastern city of Jalalabad on Wednesday and at least five people were killed and 25 wounded in a daylong battle with security forces before the attack was finally suppressed.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the assault, which began with a suicide car bomb outside the office in the morning and continued as gunmen entered the compound where they resisted Afghan security forces for about 10 hours.

Black smoke funneled into the sky from the area as gunmen battled special forces through the afternoon. Up to 45 people who had taken refuge in a fortified “safe room” in the compound were rescued by late afternoon, but fighting continued past nightfall when officials said the last attacker was killed.

“The fight is over,” the provincial governor’s spokesman, Attaullah Khogyani, told reporters.

Authorities said three Save the Children employees had been killed, including one guard, as well as a member of the Afghan security forces and a shopkeeper.

In addition to the suicide bomber who blew himself up, four other gunmen were shot by security forces. Witnesses said at least some of them were in police uniform, a commonly used tactic.

The raid began with a huge blast at around 9 a.m. that rocked the neighborhood, where other aid groups and government buildings are based. A neighboring building of another aid group caught fire but all staff were evacuated.

“Right after that children and people started running away,” said Ghulam Nabi, who was nearby when the bomb exploded. “I saw a vehicle catch fire and then a gunfight started.”

Islamic State, in a statement on its Amaq news agency, said the attack targeted British, Swedish and Afghan government institutions. Save the Children was founded in Britain, and a Swedish aid group office and a building of the Afghan Department of Women’s Affairs are near the compound.

The attack underlines how difficult operating in Afghanistan has become for humanitarian aid groups, which have faced heavy pressure from armed groups and kidnappers. In 2017, a total of 17 aid workers were killed and 32 injured in the country.

“OUTRAGEOUS”

Save the Children, which says it reaches almost 1.4 million children in Afghanistan, said that for the moment it had closed its offices in Afghanistan. It has operated in Afghanistan since 1976, working in eight provinces as well as in three others through partnership agreements.

“We are shocked and appalled at the violence carried out against our staff in Afghanistan, who are dedicated humanitarians, committed to improving the lives and wellbeing of millions of children across the country,” Save the Children International CEO Helle Thorning-Schmidt said in a statement.

“We have temporarily suspended our operations across the country following today’s events. However, we remain fully committed to helping the most deprived children of Afghanistan.”

In October, the Red Cross said it was drastically reducing operations in Afghanistan following attacks that killed seven of its staff.

“An attack against an organization that helps children is outrageous. Civilians and aid workers must not be targeted,” said Monica Zanarelli, head of the Red Cross delegation in Afghanistan, in response to Wednesday’s attack.

“Increased violence has made operating in Afghanistan increasingly difficult for many organizations.”

President Ashraf Ghani, whose government has been under heavy pressure to improve security, also condemned the attack in a statement in which he called on neighboring countries not to help militant groups.

Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar province on the porous border with Pakistan. Nangarhar has become a bastion of Islamic State, which has grown into one of Afghanistan’s most dangerous militant groups since it appeared around the beginning of 2015.

Backed by intensive U.S. air strikes, Afghan forces have claimed growing success against the Taliban and other militant groups, including Islamic State. But militant attacks on civilian targets have continued, causing heavy casualties.

The attack in Jalalabad occurred just days after Taliban militants raided the Hotel Intercontinental in the capital, Kabul, killing at least 20 people, including 13 foreigners.

(Additional reporting by Mirwais Harooni and James Mackenzie in KABUL, Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay in GENEVA and Eric Knecht in CAIRO; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Suicide bomber kills 50 in Nigeria in deadliest attack this year

By Percy Dabang and Ardo Hazzad

YOLA, Nigeria (Reuters) – A suicide bomber killed at least 50 people at a mosque in northeastern Nigeria on Tuesday, the biggest mass killing this year in a region facing an insurgency by Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

“Some of the dead were in pieces beyond recognition,” said Bayi Muhammad, a worshipper at the mosque in Mubi who said he only escaped the blast because he was late for early morning prayers.

The government and military have said numerous times since 2015 that Boko Haram’s eight-year insurgency is almost defeated but the group continues to attack civilian and military targets.

Tuesday’s bombing brings the number killed in 2017 to at least 278, according to calculations by Reuters. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack.

Abubakar Othman, a police spokesman in Adamawa state, said the death toll is at least 50 but “there could be more as those seriously injured could add to the figure.”

Mubi is in Adamawa state where Boko Haram held territory in 2014. Troops pushed them out in early 2015. The group mounts suicide attacks in public places such as mosques and markets.

Tuesday’s attack was the biggest in Nigeria’s northeast since two schoolgirl suicide bombers killed 56 people and wounded dozens more at a market in Adamawa last December.

It is also the first attack on Mubi since armed forces recaptured the town from Boko Haram in 2014.

The blast bears the hallmarks of a faction led by Abubakar Shekau, which forces women and girls to carry out suicide bombings. The attacks often leave only the bomber dead.

Boko Haram has waged an insurgency in northeastern Nigeria since 2009 in its attempt to create an Islamic state in the region. It has killed more than 20,000 and forced around 2 million people to flee their homes.

The group split in 2016 and the faction under Shekau is based in the Sambisa forest on the border with Cameroon and Chad and mainly targets civilians with suicide bombers.

The other faction is based in the Lake Chad region and led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi. It mainly attacks military forces after quietly building up its strength over the past year.

Most attacks focus on Borno state, the birthplace of the insurgency. The group held land around the size of Belgium in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states until early 2015 but was forced out by Nigeria’s army and troops from neighbouring countries.

(Reporting by Percy Dabang in Yola and Ardo Hazzad in Bauchi; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram and Paul Carsten; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

Suicide bombers attack two Afghan mosques, at least 72 dead

By Hamid Shalizi

KABUL (Reuters) – Suicide bombers attacked two mosques in Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 72 people including children, officials and witnesses said.

One bomber walked into a Shi’ite Muslim mosque in the capital Kabul as people were praying on Friday night and detonated an explosive, one of the worshippers there, Mahmood Shah Husaini, said.

At least 39 people died in the blast at the Imam Zaman mosque in the city’s western Dasht-e-Barchi district, interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said.

No group claimed responsibility. But Shi’ite Muslims have suffered a series of attacks in Afghanistan in recent months, many of them claimed by the Sunni Muslim militants of Islamic State.

Separately, a suicide bombing killed at least 33 people at a mosque in central Ghor province, a police spokesman said.

The attack appeared to target a local leader from the Jamiat political party, according to a statement from Balkh provincial governor Atta Mohammad Noor, a leading figure in Jamiat.

Again, no one immediately claimed responsibility.

(Additional reporting by Jalil Ahmad Rezaee in Herat; Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Catherine Evans and Andrew Heavens)

Suicide bombers attack Damascus police center: Syrian state media

A damaged site is seen in front of police headquarters in central Damascus, Syria October 11, 2017. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Three men blew themselves up near the police headquarters in central Damascus on Wednesday, killing two people and injuring six others, state media said, citing the interior ministry.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, the second this month.

Two suicide bombers tried to storm the police center and clashed with guards before detonating explosive devices outside on Khalid bin al-Walid street, the Damascus police chief said.

Police forces then chased down the third attacker, who blew himself up nearby at the entrance to a clothes market.

“Our investigations are ongoing to find out where they came from and how,” police chief Mohammad Kheir Ismail told state TV from outside the headquarters. “The issue has been controlled.”

An Islamic State statement said three suicide bombers had attacked the police center with machine guns and explosive belts.

Islamic State also claimed responsibility earlier this month for a similar suicide bomb attack on a police station in another part of Damascus, in which 17 people were reported dead.

Damascus has enjoyed relative security as Syria’s six-year civil war has raged on nearby and across the country. But several such attacks have hit the capital in recent years, including a car bomb that killed 20 people in July.

Islamic State and Tahrir al-Sham – led by militants formerly linked to al Qaeda – have each claimed separate suicide blasts that killed scores of people in Damascus previously.

“The desperate suicide attempts come as a response to the victories of the Syrian Arab Army, and the Interior Ministry is fully ready to thwart any terrorist act,” state television quoted Interior Minister Mohammad al-Shaar as saying.

With the help of Russian jets and Iran-backed militias, the Damascus government has pushed back rebels in western Syria, shoring up its rule over the main urban centers. In recent months, it has also marched eastwards against Islamic State.

Syrian troops and allied forces have recaptured several suburbs of Damascus from rebel factions over the past year. The army and its allies have been fighting insurgents in the Jobar and Ain Tarma districts on the capital’s eastern outskirts.

(Reporting by Ellen Francis; additional reporting by Ali Abdelatti in Cairo; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Suicide attack at Kabul Shi’ite mosque kills ‘at least 14 civilians’

An Afghan policeman keeps guard the the site of attack in Kabul, Afghanistan August 25, 2017. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

KABUL (Reuters) – A suicide bomber detonated himself at the gate of a Shi’ite Muslim mosque in the Afghan capital as other attackers stormed the building, killing at least 14 people as worshippers gathered for Friday prayers, officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Islamic State militants have attacked minority Shi’ite targets in Afghanistan in the past.

An official at the Ministry of Interior said there were at least 14 civilian casualties, while at least two policemen had been killed and eight wounded.

At least two bodies and 15 wounded people had been brought to city hospitals, with ambulances retrieving more casualties at the scene, said Ismail Kawosi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health.

Some witnesses at the scene said the attackers threw grenades, while police officials said a suicide bomber detonated himself at the gate.

One witness said an attacker wearing a vest packed with explosives shot and killed the guards at the gate.

“At first a suicide bomber opened fire and martyred two security guards at the entrance of the mosque and then they entered inside,” Sayed Pacha told Reuters. “Some people escaped out of the mosque including women, but there were four attackers who managed to enter the mosque.”

Later explosions rocked the area, but their source was unclear.

(Reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Would-be suicide bomber sheds light on suspected Pakistani militant web

A policeman (L) and residents walk past a shop displaying the pictures of men, who were killed in a suicide blast on January 2015,

By Saad Sayeed and Syed Raza Hassan

SHIKARPUR, Pakistan – The confession of a Pakistani teenager who was captured moments before carrying out a suicide attack has given police a rare glimpse into a militant network they say is behind the recent surge in sectarian violence.

Usman’s testimony, a copy of which has been seen by Reuters, describes a web of radical seminaries and training and bomb making facilities stretching from eastern Afghanistan, where the young man was recruited, to Pakistan’s southern Sindh province.

Hundreds of people have been killed in attacks on Pakistan’s small Shi’ite community, heightening fears in the Sunni-dominated country of an escalation in sectarian bloodshed that has been a persistent threat for decades.

Pakistani police believe the network, which Usman says aided him on his 2,000 km journey, has also helped Islamic State spread its extremist agenda in South Asia, even without proven operational links with its core in the Middle East.

The Pakistani network brings together several known jihadists belonging to extremist groups that have targeted religious minorities for decades, police said, providing fertile ground for Islamic State’s ideology to spread.

Usman’s confession does not name Islamic State directly, but police say they believe the network that recruited and trained him was behind five deadly sectarian bombings in Pakistan, four of which have been claimed by the group based in Syria and Iraq.

“ISIS (Islamic State) has no formal structure (in Pakistan). It works on a franchise system and that is the model that is being used in Pakistan,” senior Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) officer Raja Umer Khattab told Reuters.

By that he said he meant Islamic State could claim attacks as its own, even if it had no direct role in coordinating them.

Usman, 18 at the time of the thwarted attack, is currently on death row in the town of Shikarpur, where he was caught.

Reuters was unable to contact him for this story, but Usman’s court-appointed lawyer said the family had shown no interest in the case.

“I am not sure if an appeal has been filed against the sentence, since no one from his family ever turned up to even meet Usman,” advocate Deedar Brohi told Reuters, adding that his client had been sentenced by an anti-terrorism court in March.

Police say the network emerged relatively recently – the main suspects became known to police over the last two years – but it is not clear whether it is acting alone or on the orders of other groups like Islamic State.

 

“YOU SHOULD JOIN JIHAD”

Under interrogation, Usman, arrested last September, described his recruitment in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, where U.S. and Afghan forces have been fighting a local offshoot of Islamic State estimated to number a few hundred fighters.

Originally from the Pakistani valley of Swat, his family fled to Nangarhar after his father, a member of the Pakistani Taliban, was killed in a drone strike.

Usman told investigators he came home one day to find his brother sitting with an older man.

“My brother said that you should join jihad … you should become a suicide bomber,” Usman said in the confession.

He left that day and traveled with the older man by bus to the Afghan province of Kandahar, where they crossed into Pakistan’s Baluchistan province.

From there, they rode a motorcycle to the remote desert town of Wadh in southern Baluchistan, where Usman began his training and stayed at the home of a man called Maaz.

“In our room, Maaz took out explosives from a bag and prepared two suicide jackets,” Usman told investigators.

Police suspect Wadh is where several militant movements, including al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban and other local banned groups, have been active.

The media wing of Pakistan’s military did not respond to requests for comment for this article, including how militants could use Wadh as hub.

An intelligence official, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press, denied Wadh was part of a militant network.

“No training camp in Wadh or safe (haven) for militants now,” the official said in a Whatsapp message.

After about a month in Wadh, Usman said he traveled by motorcycle with an escort on dusty back roads to Shikarpur. A few days later, he was dispatched with his explosives vest to attack a prayer meeting attended by Shi’ite Muslims.

The attack failed when one worshipper spoke to Usman in the local Sindhi language, which he could not understand. A crowd gathered and grabbed him before he could reach his detonator.

 

CENTRAL SUSPECT

Police investigators, who spoke about the case on condition of anonymity, said Usman’s confession helped them identify several key militants including a suicide vest maker and the man who oversees the network – a former Pakistani intelligence services asset named Shafiq Mengal.

“Our intelligence shows that he has 500-1,000 militants working under him and is living in the mountains,” said a senior police official.

Reuters was unable to contact Mengal or independently confirm the assertions of the police official. But his father, a prominent Baluch politician during the military regime of General Zia ul Haq in the 1980s, said his son had no links with militant networks.

“Shafiq has not given shelter to any terrorist outfit and their activities,” former Baluchistan chief minister Naseer Mengal told Reuters.

However, the older Mengal added that his son had been active in supporting Pakistani security forces in battling Baluch separatist groups.

“Shafiq fought against those elements who challenged the writ of State and were involved in target killings of innocent people and security forces,” he said.

An internal police profile of Mengal seen by Reuters said he attended an elite school in the eastern city of Lahore before completing his education at a madrassa.

According to the document, prepared by a Baluchistan police official, Mengal “was set up by the intelligence agencies to counter separatist Baloch militants” that fight the government in Baluchistan.

The report said that, more recently, it appeared Mengal shifted his efforts to helping jihadists.

The intelligence official said Mengal no longer had any association with the military.

The armed forces have launched several major offensives against groups including al Qaeda and the Taliban in recent years, but they have also been accused of using militants as proxy fighters in Kashmir and Baluchistan – a charge they deny.

 

“HATE-FILLED SERMONS”

Police said another important suspect in the network was Hafeez Brohi, already on Pakistan’s wanted terrorist list. He comes from Shikarpur, and it was at Brohi’s residence that they said the teenager stayed before the failed attack.

Usman did not name Brohi directly but said a man named Umer Hafiz, who police officials say was actually Brohi, took him from Wadh to Shikarpur by motorbike.

Usman’s police case file also identifies Brohi as one of the main suspects in the failed bombing. Case files seen by Reuters on several other sectarian attacks in Shikarpur also single him out.

The town itself, some 250 km east of Wadh but several times that distance by road, is seen as an increasingly important center of sectarian extremism, according to officials from the counter terrorism department.

Two local Shi’ite mosques were targeted by attacks in 2015.

Several new madrassas have been built in the area in recent years, and members of the Shi’ite minority suspect that they are used by Sunni hardliners to spread religious intolerance.

“The madrassas are concentrated in remote villages,” said Syed Atta Hussain Shah, the imam of the Shi’ite mosque in Shikarpur. “Preachers show up from elsewhere and stay in these madrassas and deliver hate-filled sermons.”

Police officials said they suspected Brohi was the point man for the network in southern Sindh province and was involved in the bombing at Sehwan Sharif shrine that killed 90 people – the most deadly attack in Pakistan claimed by Islamic State.

Brohi has been in hiding for the last three or four years, according to CTD officials.

Usman was sentenced to death in March along with 10 militants in absentia, including Brohi.

 

(Additional reporting by Gul Yousafzai in Quetta; Editing by Mike Collett-White)