ISLAMABAD, 9 October 2003 — The government yesterday offered a $43,000 reward for information on the killers of militant leader Azam Tariq.
“We are offering the reward and hope this will help track down the culprits,” Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat told AFP.
Tariq, who headed extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba (SSP), was shot dead in his car by three unidentified gunmen on the outskirts of capital Islamabad on Monday.
Meanwhile, police have arrested a suspect in connection with the assassination of Azam Tariq, Inspector General of Islamabad Police, retired Maj. Mohammad Akram said.
Talking to reporters Akram said the suspect is an employee of the toll plaza at Golra More where the killings took place.
He said it is suspected that after a telephone call from the toll plaza a white Pajero followed Tariq’s car and the attack took place.
The most high-profile assassination of a religious leader in two years sparked fears of a resurgence of the intra-sect violence that has killed thousands over the past two decades in Pakistan.
“A new cycle of murder and mayhem may in fact have begun now,” the Daily Times wrote in its editorial.
Clashes between fanatics of the rival sects have surged this year, claiming at least 76 lives since February. The English-language daily called Tariq’s killing “a death most foretold in the history of Pakistan,” given the number of Shiite killings this year, including the July massacre of 51 Shiite worshippers in southwest city Quetta.
Musharraf has sought to curtail militancy with a series of bans and arrests since August 2001, and in recent months launched a fresh public campaign against extremism. He warned only last Friday that militancy was “the enemy within.” Vengeful violence erupted almost immediately after funeral prayers for Tariq early Tuesday, with angry mobs rampaging through Islamabad and his ancestral town Jhang, leaving one person dead and several injured.
Hayat said police have found the gunmen’s abandoned car in an Islamabad neighborhood and witnesses reported seeing them jumping out and fleeing in another car.
“We found a diary in the car,” Hayat said. “We have found some clues from the vehicle and there are other leads also which are being hotly pursued.”
The gunmen fled in their unmarked four-wheel drive after pumping more than 90 bullets into Tariq’s car, killing him, his driver and three bodyguards.
Hayat said investigators were probing a range of possible motives including revenge for a series of slayings of Shiites since June and internal rivalries among Sunni extremists. “They are taking into account all aspects, including sectarian terrorism, political and other possible motives,” the minister said.
A previously unheard of Shiite organization claimed responsibility for Tariq’s killing in an e-mail sent to media organizations, but there was no way to verify its authenticity.
Tariq, 42, was the third leader of Sipah-e-Sahaba to be assassinated. With an estimated 200,000 followers including 5,000 militants trained in Taleban-ruled Afghanistan, the group was blamed for hundreds of killings of followers of the rival Shiite sect.
Tariq was charged in 17 cases of murder, but he was never convicted, police said.
