Interior Sindh has a history of suicide attacks, targeted killings

KARACHI: Khanpur suicide attack, which was foiled by the police and local people, was the fifth one in three adjacent districts of Sindh.

These three districts – Shikarpur, Jacobabad and Sukkur – earlier notorious for tribal feuds, have also witnessed three planted bomb attacks and deadly assaults in the past, allegedly on sectarian basis. At least 150 people including some high-profile personalities of three different sects including Syed Hajan Shah, Syed Shafiq Shah and Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro lost their lives in these attacks.

In the current incidents, one particular sect remained the target of the attackers. Inspector General Sindh A D Khwaja told The News that the suicide attacks were carried out by sectarian terrorists coming from adjacent districts of Balochistan and southern Punjab, but the role of local people as facilitators could not be ruled out.

He said terrorists chose soft targets, but due to a vigilant role of the police, the attacks were foiled. “Keeping in view the increasing sectarian terrorism in upper Sindh, there should be a long-term policy.

“Education standards and facilities in public sector schools should be enhanced and madrassas should be regulated, monitored properly and audited,” concluded the IGP Sindh. On February 6, 2013, a blast tore through Dargah Pir Hajan Shah Huzoori in Marri village near Shikarpur, killing four and injuring 12 others, including Syed Hajan Shah, the ‘Gaddi Nasheen’ (a descendant of the saint and custodian of the shrine). The investigators believe the incident was a suicide attack, the first one of its nature in interior Sindh.

Though Syed Hajan Shah, commonly known as Hajan Shah Mari Waro, belonged to a particular sect, majority of his followers belonged to other sects.

On February 20, 2013, a blast took place at a religious rally near Jacobabad, killing one person and injuring 12 others.

A remote-controlled bomb was planted along a road and detonated when a vehicle carrying Pir of Qambar Sharif, Sain Hussain Shah was passing by. In this attack, Syed Hussain Shah himself and 12 others were seriously injured and his grandson Shafiq Hussain Shah was killed.

On May 1, 2013 a famous politician, former Member of National Assembly Ibrahim Jatoi escaped unharmed in a suicide bombing in Shikarpur district, which left two people wounded, police said.

The attack came in southern Shikarpur district when Jatoi, a National People’s Party (NPP) candidate from NA-202 constituency of Shikarpur, was out for electioneering.

A suicide bomber, on a motorcycle, blew himself up near the car of Jatoi, but he escaped unharmed. Only the bomber died in the blast.

On November 29, 2014 a senior JUI-F leader Khalid Mehmood Soomro was shot dead in Sukkur.

The early morning attack took place when Soomro, who was the secretary general for the Sindh chapter of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F, was leaving a mosque attached with a madrassa in Sukkur after offering Fajr prayers.

Armed men entered the area and opened fire at Soomro. He was in Sukkur to participate in a conference when the attack took place in the Khosa Goth area.

On January 30, 2015, at least 60 people were killed and 60 others injured in an explosion inside an Imambargah in Shikarpur district.

On October 14, 2015, a bomb targeted a Muharram procession near Shershah Haveli in Jacobabad's Lashari Mohalla, killing at least 20 people and injuring many others. Police said the attack as suicidal.