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Mastermind of Islamabad bombings held

By Fazal Sher

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad police on Friday claimed to have arrested the mastermind of suicide attacks on the World Food Programme’s (WFP) offices and the International Islamic University.

Addressing a press conference, Islamabad Inspector General (IG) Syed Kalim Imam said that Jamshed alias Tahir was a key member of ‘Ghazi Force’, formed by former students of the Lal Masjid following a military offensive on the mosque in 2007.

Imam said Tahir had admitted to planning several suicide bombings in Islamabad, including attacks on the WFP office, FC checkpost on Margalla Road and the Rescue 15 building.

In his confession, Tahir admitted that he brought a suicide attacker, Muhammad, from Dabori village of Orakzai Agency.

The IG said the thoroughly trained and indoctrinated man, in his mid-20s, used to facilitate suicide bombers, providing them with weapons, involvement had been clearly established in at least four suicide attacks in Islamabad.

The IG said they arrested Tahir from the Rawal Lake area on a tip-off, where he was waiting for his accomplices. Police also recovered an eight-kilogramme suicide jacket, filled with 5,000 ball-bearings, along with a detonator from his possession.

Imam said the Ghazi Force had also provided four suicide jackets to Tahir to launch an attack on Adiala Jail as many terrorists were currently detained there. The IG said that after escaping from Lal Masjid, he joined the force formed by Niaz Raheem, a former student of Lal Masjid.

Tahir, who belonged to Swat, had confessed to demolishing a girl school in Hazar village in Swat besides blowing up a bridge in which 12 soldiers embraced shahadat. He also admitted to attacking on a convoy in village Sirseni (Swat) in which six soldiers were martyred.

To a question, the IG said police had made an important breakthrough in investigation into recent targeted attack on an army officer in Islamabad.

To another question, he said police had arrested 72 terrorists, of which six were would-be suicide bombers.

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