LJ man behind Quetta suicide attacks arrested

By Hasan Mansoor

KARACHI: The paramilitary Rangers on Monday announced the arrest of the wanted militant of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi who was allegedly involved in the two suicide bombings in Quetta in the last two years, which killed over 100 Shias.

“Our teams, along with other law enforcement agencies, arrested Dawood Badini on Saturday midnight from the Federal B Area,” where he had taken refuge after fleeing from Quetta, the director-general of Pakistan Rangers (Sindh), Maj Gen Javed Zia, told reporters at the Rangers’ headquarters at Jinnah Courts.

He said Badini masterminded the spate of terror attacks aimed at Shias in the Balochistan capital, which also included the killing of 12 police recruits on June 8, 2003 in an ambush. “He is a key member of the group,” Gen Zia said.

In July last year he had been involved in an attack on a Shia mosque, which killed at least 54 people, said the Sindh Rangers chief. Badini later fled to Karachi to escape arrest, he added.

Investigators call Badini the kingpin of the Lashkar’s terror network in Balochistan who masterminded, and participated in, numerous attacks against Shias. “Balochistan’s police and law enforcement agencies had cornered him, which forced him to move to Karachi,” Gen Zia said.

“We located his whereabouts after many weeks of hectic effort and arrested him after a successful raid jointly conducted by the Rangers and other intelligence and law enforcement agencies,” he said. According to him, Badini had confessed to participating in the attack on the director general of NADRA, Bartar Hussain Naqvi, on Aug 9, 2002. He also confessed to the killing of the police recruits and to two suicide bombings in Quetta.

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