Breakthrough As the Authorities Identify Nishtar Park Bomber

More than a year after the April 11, 2006 Nishtar Park killings, intelligence agencies have finally come close to solving the case, Dawn has learnt.The spymasters have picked up members of the group used by a militant outfit to carry out the suicide bombing that killed over 55 people and wiped out nearly the entire hierarchy of the Sunni Tehrik.The agencies have also established a close link between the Nishtar Park case and the murder of Allama Hasan Turabi just over three months later.Sources close to the intelligence agencies disclosed that they have interrogated two men of Bengali origin who were recently picked up. These men identified the Nishtar Park bomber as a man of Bengali origin in his late teens or early 20s, who lived in one of Karachi’s shanty towns.Reportedly, family members of the man in question were picked up and DNA tests have established their link with the suicide bomber.The sources said that the group comprised “impoverished Bengalis who were lured by offers of financial support and then used in the Nishtar Park incident by an extremist element of the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi that has links with the NWFP.”The same group was responsible for Allama Turabi’s July 14, 2006, assassination — believed to be the first case where a single person was targeted by a suicide bomber.A suspect charged in the Turabi case, Muslim Ilyas Sultan who is also of Bengali origin, is currently being held at the Central Prison Karachi. He has been interrogated in connection with the Nishtar Park bombing and has given some valuable information.However, the sources declined to give any further details about the two men in detention and the identity of the Nishtar Park bomber.After the Nishtar Park incident, which took place on 12 Rabiul Awal, photographs of the suicide bomber were released to the media. Subsequently, a family in Gulistan-i-Jauhar contacted the police saying that the bomber resembled their brother, who had been missing since the Nishtar Park bombing.However, the man in question returned to his family a few months later. Reportedly, he was mentally disturbed and had wandered off.