KARACHI, 17 July 2006 — The suicide bomber who killed prominent Shiite leader Hassan Turabi and his 10-year-old nephew did not hail from Karachi and was not registered with the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), a government statement said yesterday.
Investigators photographed the suicide bomber’s severed head and tried to match it with the data available with NADRA.
The photograph matched with that of a young man, Waris Shah, a resident of Shah Faisal Colony, in Karachi, who is alive. That was the only person from Karachi whose photograph matched with that of the bomber’s.
Investigators also scoured the 28,000-strong crime database but could find no clue to the bomber’s identity.
This helped to establish that the suicide bomber did not have a criminal record in Karachi and he must have come from somewhere outside the city.
Meanwhile, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, of which Turabi was a key leader, announced yesterday they would observe a protest day in Sindh and Punjab tomorrow.
MMA leader Liaquat Baloch said important decisions would be made at a meeting of the party’s Supreme Council in Peshawar which would also weigh future strategy in view of a spate of terror attacks on eminent religious scholars and opposition political leaders.
“The government and its agencies are responsible for these killings because they have failed to stop them,” he said.
More Killings Feared
Sindh Home Minister Rauf Siddiqui said the government was taking all possible measures to trace and arrest the mastermind behind Turabi’s assassination.
The minister claimed he had received credible information pointing to more such acts of terrorism.
“After the assassination of Allama Turabi, intelligence agencies have warned of more such attacks in the province and particularly in Karachi.” Siddiqui said he had ordered police and the paramilitary Rangers to immediately arrest anyone found displaying arms even if he possessed a licensed weapon.
