Mastung suicide bomber was seminary student: Official

Karachi, July 22

The suicide bomber who recently killed nearly 150 people at an election meeting in Pakistan’s troubled Balochistan province had studied at a religious seminary in Karachi before travelling to Afghanistan for militant training, police confirmed on Sunday.

Hafeez Abbasi struck at an election meeting of the Baluchistan Awami party in Mastung on July 13, killing nearly 150 people and injuring some 200 others in one of the deadliest attacks in Pakistan’s history.

Nawab Siraj Raisani, a candidate from PB-35 (Mastung), was among those killed in the attack, claimed by the Islamic State terror group.

“We uncovered the identity of the bomber and his details by matching finger prints of an unclaimed body in the Mastung bomb blast,” an official in the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Sindh Police said.

“We matched it with the record available with the National Database and Registration Authority. It was confirmed that the alleged suicide bomber was a resident of Gharibabad Mohalla in Dhabeji, Thatta,” he said.

“A special CTD team went to Thatta and was told by the bomber’s father that Hafeez had been shifted to the Spin Boldak area of Afghanistan,” he added.

Another official said the bomber’s father Muhammad Nawaz had revealed that not only his son, but his wife and two other sons and three daughters had also gone to Afghanistan.

“According to the father, his son studied at a seminary in Shah Faisal Colony in Karachi where he was put on the path to militancy,” the official said.

The official said it was confirmed that the three sisters of the suicide bomber were religious scholars in Afghanistan and had married ISIS militants there. — PTI