Multan Blast: Attack on "Court of Law" Intensifies in Pakistan
By Animesh Roul
Remember Bangladesh. Now it’s happening in Pakistan. Islamic Jihadi elements are increasingly targeting the Court of Law. At least three persons including two policemen were killed and as many as 10 others including a special court judge, Bashir Ahmed Bhatati, sustained injuries in a bomb blast in the eastern Pakistan city of Multan on March 02. The blast took place minutes before the judge was about to deliver his verdict on a sectarian terrorism case. Its beyond doubt that Bhatati was the main target of the blast.
This is the second attack on a judge in Pakistan in less than a fortnight. On February 17, around 17 people, including a senior civil judge Abdul Wahid Durrani, were killed and as many as 30 people injured in a powerful suicide bombing in the Quetta District Courts compound. Seven lawyers also had been killed in the suicide attack. While the latest Multan blast took place outside the Court, the Feb 17 blast took place inside the court room of Durrani. This time it was not a suicide attack, but a blast triggered by a timer device and the bomb was attached to a cycle.
Two things suspected now. The cycle-bomb may have a connection with Feb. 24 Chicha Watni suicide bombers (with a strong Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) link) who were killed when explosives packed on the bicycle went off accidentally. Or else, the Taliban-Sunni extremist angle: the attack came hours after the reported arrest of a former Taliban defense minister and believed to be number two leader of Taliban, Mullah Obaidullah Akhund from Quetta surfaced in the media. Akhund was arrested along with Amir Khan Haqqani, a Taliban commander and Abdul Bari, the former Governor of Helmand province, on Feb 26 last (reported on March 01).
See Andrew Cochran's Post on Mullah Obaidullah Akhund below.
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