Peshawar, Kohat, Nowshera next targets of terrorists

ISLAMABAD: In a major breakthrough, the security agencies have got a big lead in investigations into the bombings at Wah. The third suicide bomber arrested on the spot is cooperating with the authorities and has provided many details about his network and these details have raised more questions about the role of India in Afghanistan.

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The would-be suicide bomber, Hameedullah Khan, belongs to the Khyber Agency. He revealed during the investigation that his network of suicide bombers would try to hit important installations in Peshawar, Kohat and Nowshera in the near future. Interestingly, Hameedullah Khan is not from Swat or Bajaur where the security forces are conducting operations and there was no question that the bombing was in retaliation to the operations in Swat or Bajaur. He is sure that other two suicide bombers were also from the Khyber area. Security agencies have doubts over the claim of Maulvi Omer of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, who accepted responsibility for Thursday's bombings. His claim is viewed as an attempt to blackmail the government. Officials supervising the investigation into Thursday's bombings were not ready to believe that Hameedullah Khan was a part of any group active in South Waziristan, Swat or Bajaur. He spent most of his time in Khyber with some other bombers in total isolation. He was not aware about the details of the operation in Bajaur because he was not allowed to come out of his hideout in Khyber for more than a month. His handlers told him that the Pakistan Army was collaborating with the enemies of Islam and killing their own fellow Muslims and attacking the Pakistan Army would be a Jihad. The three suicide bombers were ordered just one night before their deadly action to blow their jackets packed with explosives when "collaborators of infidels" would come out in big numbers. They were told that these people made weapons which were being used against Muslims of the tribal areas. He travelled early Wednesday morning from Khyber to Mohmand where he spent one night. The next day the suicide bombers were taken from Mohmand to the POF in a black Toyota Corolla car to attack Army soldiers, who were conducting operations in the tribal areas. Twenty-year-old Hameedullah Khan changed his mind just a few minutes before his deadline on Thursday afternoon in front of the Pakistan Ordnance Factory at Wah. Around 2:30 in the afternoon when the POF workers started coming out, young Hameedullah Khan realised that his target was not the Army soldiers but common civilians. His two other comrades reached close to their targets but he changed his mind and came back to a nearby mosque. He got rid of his suicide jacket in the toilet of the mosque and tried to escape in a taxi but the police arrested him within a few minutes of the deadly bombings. Hameedullah Khan is very much satisfied that he never killed his fellow Muslims. He is also sure that other suicide bombers will not go to paradise but to hell because they had only killed poor labourers. According to the latest report presented to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, the Indian Embassy in Kabul is handling some terrorist groups inside Pakistan. These groups started their terrorist activities last year and hired many angry youngsters from the tribal belt whose families suffered badly due to the military operations in the tribal areas. One of the groups was also involved in two suicide attacks against former interior minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao. Two people arrested from this group last year accepted that they had links to some people in Kabul with officials of the Indian embassy. The report presented to the prime minister says that the Thursday's bombings in Wah could be an Indo-Afghan plan to avenge the alleged involvement of Pakistan in the suicide attack against the Indian embassy in Kabul in July this year. It was also claimed in the report that the Indian intelligence agency, RAW, had given targets to a group based in the Khyber Agency for organising attacks in Peshawar, Kohat and Nowshera rather than Islamabad or Karachi with the logic that an attack in big cities would point fingers at India but attacks in areas close to Fata could be easily taken as the Taliban activity.