The Punjab chapter of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said it carried out the attack to avenge the February 24 killing of commander Qari Zafar.
Fifteen people were killed and 70 injured in a suicide attack on a police intelligence unit in Lahore on Monday. The Punjab chapter of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said it carried out the attack to avenge the February 24 killing of commander Qari Zafar, acting ameer of the al Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) in a US drone attack in north Waziristan.
The blast, carried out by a human bomber riding a vehicle, left a huge crater in the road outside the office of the main police investigation agency, which has been attacked at least twice before. The blast was so powerful that it wounded someone in a house about 300 metres away. Residents of the home stepped on a pool of blood as they cleared away a shattered doorway.
Confirming Zafar’s death in a statement faxed to local journalists on February 25, an LeJ spokesman had termed him a martyr and pledged to avenge his death. “The mujahideen will soon take revenge for his killing, by resorting to suicide bombings anywhere in the country,” the LeJ spokesman had said.
Zafar was killed along with nine Punjabi Taliban in the Peerano Killay area of Miramshah, the headquarters of the north Waziristan agency, when a drone struck his hideout. He was wanted by the American and Pakistani authorities for his involvement in the March 2, 2006, car bomb attack on the US consulate in Karachi, which killed three Pakistanis and diplomat David Foy. The FBI had announced a $5-million bounty on his head.
Originally from Karachi, commander Qari Zafar had joined hands with the TTP and was appointed ameer of its Punjab chapter, which is blamed for a series of fidayeen attacks in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad in 2009, including the October 10 assault on the general headquarters (GHQ) of the Pakistani army in the garrison town of Rawalpindi. The only fidayeen attacker captured alive after the GHQ assault was a Punjabi Taliban Mohammad Aqeel, alias Dr Usman, a key member of the LeJ and close associate of Zafar.
The GHQ attack was carried out by the Punjab Taliban to avenge the August 2009 killing of the founding TTP ameer, commander Baitullah Mehsud, in a US drone attack in south Waziristan.
With agency inputs
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