HANGU, Feb 10: Death toll on Friday rose to 37 and the number of injured to 91 in two days of sectarian violence in Hangu, NWFP.
A blast, apparently caused by a suicide bomber, struck Ashura mourners on the main Hangu-Tall road at about 9.35am on Thursday, triggering violence.
Another blast followed immediately causing further casualties, security officials and eyewitnesses said.
NWFP police chief Riffat Pasha put the death toll at 31, saying that there had been reports of few more casualties in Ibrahimzai, but that remained to be confirmed.
Riots broke out in different parts of the city and surrounding villages, about 130km from Peshawar.
Army was immediately called out to control the situation that had gone out of police control. But locals said that their number was too small to control the rioters.
There were widespread incidents of arson attacks and lootings. Fire fighters face hardships to put out raging flames that have burnt almost 75 per cent of shops in the main bazaar.
Hangu continued to reverberate with staccato of gunfire and heavy machineguns, and occasional bangs of mortar fire were also heard till the filing of this report, despite the two-day-old curfew and patrolling by the paramilitary and police contingents.
Combatants refused to heed calls for calm and peace by Ulema, the district and provincial government. Groups exchanged fire in Koi Bagh, Mohallah Bahadur Garhi, Mohallah Chashma Masjid and Pass Kali.
At times, the firing was so intense that people had problems performing last rites of their loved ones who died in the explosions.
At least 100 rockets were fired on Ibrahimzai village, about 10 kilometres to the east of Hangu city, on Thursday night.
The NWFP government has ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident and announced compensation for the victims. High Court Chief Justice Tariq Pervez on Friday nominated Justice Fazlur Rehman Khan for the probe.
Describing the situation as grim, an official said paramilitary troops backed by armed personnel carriers had failed to establish the writ of the government.
�The situation is still very tense,� a senior police official told Dawn in Peshawar.
There were calls by local representatives for more troop deployment to ward off possible attacks from neighbouring Orakzai Agency.
However, Mr Pasha said the political administration in Orakzai had held out assurances against any trouble from the tribal region.
Security officials said a warning had been given to the provincial government about two weeks ago to watch against possible terrorist attacks in Hangu.
�Yes, warnings were issued to the government two weeks ago. We don�t know as to why it did not take appropriate security measures�, a senior official said.
Hangu has had a history of sectarian violence that has struck the city four times since 1980, including the latest one.
�Appropriate measures should have been taken, keeping in mind the history of Hangu,� the official said.
Locals said policemen escorting the Ashura procession were a few and armed with only sticks therefore, they remained unable to pre-empt the sabotage.
Doctors said local hospitals were running short of life saving drugs. They said seven of the dead were so badly mutilated that their bodies were beyond recognition.
The dead also included Constable Mohammad Rasool, paramilitary soldier Arshad Mahmood and a government official Wilayat Khan.
About 20 seriously wounded persons were shifted to Kohat by helicopters.
In Pass Kalay, people could not bury their relatives due to heavy fire and mortar attacks, said one witness.
After the explosion, according to eyewitness account, rioters torched hundreds of shops, vehicles and banks in the main bazaar and started indiscriminate firing. Power supply to the city could not be restored due to continuing clashes.
�One can�t imagine the volume of destruction�, said Mohammad Ikram, a local. Smoke is still bellowing from the burned shops and buildings.
Security officials investigating the tragic incident said they had not been able to collect forensic evidence of the suspected suicide bomber.
�We have drawn a blank over there,� the official told Dawn in Peshawar. But he quoted an eyewitness as seeing smoke coming out of the jacket of the suspected bomber, before a huge explosion ripping his head and tossing it up in the air.
A senior police official in Peshawar supported the statement and said there had been witnesses who saw the torso flying up about 20 feet in the air after the explosion.
He claimed that the police had recovered the torso and lower limbs of the suspected bomber, brought to the Hangu District Headquarters Hospital after the incident.
�There is absolutely no doubt as to the cause of the explosion,� the police official said, requesting he not be identified.
Security agencies and police were also at variance about report of a second blast.
Police claimed that the second explosion might have come from gas cylinders when angry mobs torched a shop that had stored gas cylinders.
The police version is further corroborated by the absence of a crater near the scene of the second explosion.
AFP adds: The army warned to use gunship helicopters on the activists who were holed up in villages near the tense town of Hangu and launching mortar rounds at each other.
Paramilitary troops and police maintained a 24-hour curfew in the mountain town.
Security was also high amid fears that the bloodshed could stoke up sectarian tensions.
Gunfire broke out in Hangu after the authorities in some areas relaxed curfew restrictions for Friday�s prayers, according to witnesses, who said they saw residents and security officials running for cover.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, police said.
Military officials said troops had flushed out Shias and Sunnis who had stationed themselves in Hangu bazaar and attacked the rival sect�s shops late in the night.
�There was heavy firing and shelling last night but the situation is quite under control now,� paramilitary Frontier Corps official Jahanzeb Khan told AFP.
Troops have warned the feuding groups positioned on mountains in Ibrahimzai to disengage or the army would use helicopter gunships against them, Hangu police chief Abdul Majid Khan said.
Police vans fitted with loudspeakers were warning residents to stay in their homes, Mr Khan said.
�The situation is not fully under control but there is a tense calm,� Mr Khan said. The town centre was still restive because the hospital was returning the bodies of victims to their relatives for burial.
Mr Khan said the suicide bomber�s remains were in the hospital and the authorities were trying to identify him. The hospital chief, Abdul Rashid Khan, said a body with its upper torso missing was being treated as that of the bomber.
Interior Minister was quoted as saying that the situation in Hangu was under control.
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Protesters end sit-in after 27 hours in Gilgit
9-02-2006
GILGIT, Feb 10: Protesters belonging to the Shia community on Friday called off their 27-hour long agitation in various parts of the Northern Areas. The campaign had paralysed life in Gilgit.
The protest began on Thursday on the eve of Ashura procession took a sectarian turn after thousands of mourners from Hunza, Nagar, Haramoush, Nomal and Bargu gathered in Gilgit. They called for the release of detained Shia leaders detained on Oct 14, 2005 following a shootout. The detained leaders included Agha Rahat Al-Hussaini, Deedar Ali, Shaikh Mirza and Shaikh Nayyar Abbas.
It was reported that demonstrators demanding the leaders� release blocked the Ghizer-Gilgit road in Bargu, some 20kms West of Gilgit. Simultaneously, the Gilgit-Skardu road was also blocked near Sassi (Haramoush) about 65kms East of here. The Karakoram Highway remained blocked for two days at Durkhand, Murtazabad (Hunza), Ghulmet and Harespo (Nagar), the reports said.
Earlier, protesters in Gilgit surrounded the Northern Areas Civil Secretariat for the past two days and they refused to call off agitation unless the leaders, kept in Adiyala Jail in Rawalpindi, were freed.
The sources said that after many rounds of negotiations, the Northern Areas� administration persuaded the agitators to call off their agitation on the assurances that they would soon be freed.
Meanwhile, the law-enforcement agencies tightened security along all routes leading to the Gilgit City. Thousands of women also took out processions on the Karakoram Highway and other roads but security agencies did not allow them to enter the city.
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Video may reveal bomber�s identity
14-2-2006
PESHAWAR, Feb 14: Investigators have obtained a video-tape, which they expect will provide clues to the identity of the Hangu suicide bomber, sources said.
�We have provided a tape to investigators, which contains clear images of the suicide bomber,� said an organiser of the Ashura procession in Hangu.
The bombing at an Ashura procession left 43 people dead and scores others injured.
�The tape clearly shows three people trying to get hold of the bomber before the explosion. We can confirm the identity of the killer after watching the tape,� he said.
Officials acknowledged having received the video-tape but said that they were investigating the incident from different perspectives and it would be premature to say something at this stage.
Assistant Inspector-General of Police (Investigation) Fayaz Turoo said that sufficient forensic evidence had been obtained from the blast sites that could provide vital clues to investigators to identify culprits behind the suicide bombing, the first in the NWFP.
�There is no doubt. It is an act of suicide bombing. People have seen a torso and a big fireball rising in the air,� Mr Turoo said. He said that investigations were underway and it would take time to complete them, he said.
�Investigation team reached the city the next day and collected forensic evidence and recorded eyewitness statements,� the AIG said.
Sources said that DNA test of the human remains were being conducted to ascertain the bomber�s identity.
Sources said that a team of the FIA�s Special Investigation Group (SIG) and army teams also visited the site on Monday and collected material. They said that investigators were still present in the city.
�Yes, SIG and other agencies are providing technical assistance,� the AIG said.
Sources said that investigators also suspected a Shia blast victim, Meraj Ali, for carrying out the suicide attack. He was a Hangu resident.
�We still suspect Meraj Ali although he belonged to the Shia community�, an official said.
Sources said that the police was interrogating Jamshid Ali, the son of Meraj Ali. Parts of the lower torso of Meraj Ali were recovered from the site and his son confirmed his identity.
They said that investigators were trying to establish a link between the Hangu incident and the Bari Imam shrine suicide bombing, which killed 20 people in May last.
WITNESSES INVITED: The judicial tribunal constituted for probing the Hangu incident on Tuesday notified to the general public interested in appearing as witnesses to register their names with the Hangu district and sessions judge within five days.
The tribunal presided over by Justice Fazlur Rehman Khan of the Peshawar High Court notified: �If any person who is acquainted with or in the knowledge of any or some aspects of the incident/subsequent crimes and wants to appear before and to be examined by the tribunal should register his/her name as witness with the District and Sessions Judge, Hangu within 5 days of the appearance of this press release in the media.�
The tribunal was constituted by the NWFP government after the occurrence of the incident on Feb 9. The terms of reference of the tribunal is �to probe/inquire into the facts of the incident, which occurred on Feb 9 in Hangu Bazaar during Muharram procession, wherein several persons were killed/injured in a bomb explosion and to fix the responsibility of the incident/subsequent crimes�.
The incident has resulted in the killing of about 43 people belonging to different sects.
APP ADDS: The NWFP government has constituted a two-member committee to assess the loss and damages incurred during the Hangu incident on Feb 9, says an official notification here on Tuesday.
The committee comprises Member Board of Revenue/Relief Commissioner NWFP and Chief Engineer Works and Services Department NWFP.
The committee will submit its report to the provincial government at the earliest, it concluded.
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Police get Hangu blast suspect�s photo
28-2-2006
PESHAWAR: Investigators have declared a bearded young man clad in a chadder as the main character behind explosion in Ashura procession in Hangu on February 9. The investigators had taken the photo from the videotape of the procession. The picture of the suspected accused had been circulated in all the police stations as well as CID of other provinces for identification. However, no further details have been collected about the suspect. The bomb disposal squad and other experts have confirmed it was a suicidal attack. The investigators into the case have also sent specimens collected from around the spot of explosion for DNA test.
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KOHAT, March 22: The masterminds of the massacre which claimed 46 lives and caused damage to property worth Rs1.49 billion following a suicide bomb blast in Hangu on Feb 9 have been traced by a team of investigators, sources told Dawn on Wednesday.
�The investigations have led us to the home where the suicide bomber stayed and laced himself with a bomb. The vehicle in which he came to Hangu has also been identified. We have closed in on all the accused and can put hand on them within hours. They can not escape now,� the sources said.
They said the law-enforcement agencies had expanded the investigations to a tribal agency where the plot was made.
�The terrorists wanted to spread hatred between the Shia and Sunni communities and destabilise the government,� they said.
They said the bomber was not local but the four to six people who facilitated him were residents of Hangu. The bomber came to the city on Feb 8 and was dropped on the main road at 3am by his accomplices.
Witnesses have identified the bomber as the same person who stayed at a house in the city for a few hours before executing the plan.
NWFP police chief Mohammad Raffat Pasha, said upon being asked about the matter: �The perpetrators of the massacre have been traced and they will not go unpunished. All the information will be released at an appropriate time very soon.�
Earlier, addressing a peace jirga here, Mr Pasha said the wave of terrorism had spilled over into the settled areas from Waziristan and according to intelligence reports terrorists planned to target police installations, law-enforcement personnel and commercial centres in Kohat, Hangu, Bannu, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan.
He said the accused arrested on Tank road a few days back with 10 hand grenades had admitted in a court that they planned to attack police and public places. The accused revealed during investigations they had hundreds of trained supporters, he said.
To foil their designs, police and intelligence agencies had chalked out a strategy to check infiltration of terrorists and weapons in the settled areas but public cooperation was necessary in this regard, he said.
He sought public support in the fight against terrorism.
He said Pakistan had become a victim of terrorism because it was playing the role of a front-line state in the war against terror.
He said weapons, ammunition and terrorists were coming to the settled areas from the tribal territory where a military operation was under way against Al Qaeda, Taliban and their supporters.
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Three Shias held in Hangu blast case<
20-4-2006
HANGU, April 20: Three people, including a councillor, have been arrested on charges of attacking and damaging public and private property in the post-suicide attack violence on the 10th of Muharram this year.
SSP police Mohammad Khaliq said that councillor Zaheer Hussain, Alamdaar Hussain and Zahid Ali were arrested by police and more arrests were expected in the next few days.
A suicide attack on a procession on 10 Muharram had killed 44 people and left more than 100 injured in Hangu city.
After the bombing, the enraged mob burnt shops and government buildings in the main bazaar.
Police took into custody three persons for provoking the people who attacked a flying coach in which two passengers were also killed.
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