Would-be suicide bombers die in botched attack
Monday, December 31, 2007
KARACHI: Two suspected suicide bombers were killed in Haroonabad early on Sunday when the devices they were carrying exploded prematurely in an apparent botched attack on former religious affairs minister Ejazul Haq, police told Reuters.
“My guess is that they were there to target Haq who had visited the area a day earlier,” Bahawalnagar District Police Officer Zafar Abbas told Reuters via telephone.
Haq was in the area to campaign for the next month’s general elections and had already left his house, which is 200 yards away from the blast site, by the time the blast took place, Zafar told NNI. He is contesting for a National Assembly seat from Haroonabad as a Pakistan Muslim League-Qauid candidate.
The police found scattered body parts and the wreckage of a motorcycle at the scene of the blast, and suspect that the bombers either met an accident or fell from the bike detonating the explosives, Reuters continues.
“We have retrieved two heads, which are badly mutilated and cannot be identified. One appeared to be in his early 40s while the other is a younger one,” said another police officer. Haq had been identified as a possible militant target after a suicide attack on former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao last week that killed more than 50 people.
The police said some religious elements at a nearby mosque had chanted slogans against Haq and President Pervez Musharraf’s former government over a military assault on Lal Masjid. agencies