Terrorism: KP law Minister killed in Suicide Attack in DI Khan
By Zaheerul Hassan
Ten people, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa law minister Israrullah Gandapur, were killed and more than 40 persons wounded Eid Day when a suicide bomber exploded outside his residence in Dera Ismail Khan. Gandapur’s elder brother is also among the injured individuals and now in stable conditions.
As per witnesses, the provincial law minister was exchanging Eid greetings with people at his residence in tehsil Kullachi, about 50 kilometers from Dera Ismail Khan, when the suicide bomber got very close to the minister before the blast and carried about eight kilograms (17 pounds) of explosives on his body.
“I saw so many dead people and injured people crying for help,” said eyewitness Haseeb Khan, whose new white holiday clothes were drenched in blood. “There were arms, legs and heads everywhere.” According to the media reports, Ansar al Mujahideen, a group allied to but not part of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack. The group’s spokesman, Abu Baseer, said it was in retaliation for the deaths of men killed during a July jailbreak in the same city. He was referring to a major operation by fighters from the al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban who disguised themselves as police and broke 250 prisoners out of a jail.
Gandapur was a member of the ruling party in KPK, the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI). The party head Imran Khan which favours peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban has also condemned the terrorism. Gandapur was the most senior member of the party to have been killed so far.
The Pakistani Taliban has stated that they are open to talks without surrendering and disarming. They do not recognise the Pakistani constitution, and will not talk to the government until the army pulls back from their strongholds and all their prisoners are released. Unfortunately, the suicide attack on the law minister has been carried out when government head Nawaz Sharif is visiting US president Obama and will likely to make a demand of stopping drone attacks in FATA. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Mamnoon Hussain strongly condemned the incident.
“Pakhtunkhwa lost an astute parliamentarian, a decent Pashtun and a brave leader in the martyrdom of Israr Gandapur. May he rest in peace,” tweeted prominent politician Afrasiab Khattak. The witness also revealed that the attacker first shot dead the guard at the house before blowing himself inside the guest room of the minister’s residence, the officer said. The minister died on the way to the hospital.
The suicide bomber got very close to the minister before the blast and carried about eight kilograms (17 pounds) of explosives on his body.. Gandapur was elected to the provincial assembly in May as independent. He later joined the ruling provincial party led by former cricket star Imran Khan and became law minister. He oversaw the office tasked with drafting provincial laws.
Khan has been a strong proponent of peace talks with the Taliban, but several officials from his party have been killed in attacks since the May election.
Killing of thousands of innocent people by the terrorists proves that these militants do not deserve any mercy. Pakistan has suffered a lot due to this global war on terror. Over 50000, civilians and security forces have been martyred since 9/11. Political and military top brass should come on same page to eliminate this foreign sponsored terrorism. In fact, PTI , Jamaat Islami, PML(N) and others religious parties should openly condemn TTP and others terrorists, if they are serious in improving domestic security .
