PESHAWAR: A policeman considered the main suspect in planning a deadly blast at a police compound in northwestern Pakistan last year has been arrested, the Inspector General Police of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (IGP) province said on Tuesday.
A suicide bomber struck a crowded mosque inside the Peshawar Police Lines compound on Jan. 30, 2023, killing 86 and injuring nearly 250 people who had gathered for an afternoon prayer congregation. Most of the casualties were police officers. It was not clear how the bomber was able to slip into the walled compound, which houses the police headquarters in the northwestern city of Peshawar and is itself located in a high-security zone with other government buildings.
Addressing a press conference in Peshawar, IGP Akhtar Hayat Khan Gandapur said the suspect had been identified as Muhammad Wali, a police constable in Peshawar who had been arrested on Oct. 11 this year from the city’s Jamil Chawak. Two suicide jackets were recovered from the suspect who was nabbed in a joint operation by police and the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD).
“The suspect was involved in providing suicide jackets, explosives, and terrorists from Afghanistan,” Gandapur said, explaining Wali’s alleged involvement in the planning of the attack.
“The suspect is affiliated with the banned organization Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA),” he added, referring to a subgroup of Pakistan’s indigenous Taliban movement, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
“He joined the police in 2019 and took leave three years ago and traveled to Afghanistan … The suspect provided the map of Police Lines to the suicide attacker through Telegram [messaging service] and escorted him from Khyber [district bordering Afghanistan] to Peshawar’s Pir Zakori area.”
Gandapur said the “facilitator” had received Rs 0.2 million for his assistance in the attack, adding that he was involved in other attacks as well for which he would move suicide jackets and explosives between various locations.
Pakistan has repeatedly blamed a surge in terror attacks on neighboring Afghanistan, saying most assaults are carried out by Afghan nationals and their facilitators and by TTP and other militants who cross over into Pakistan from neighboring Afghanistan.
The Taliban government in Kabul says Pakistan’s security challenges are a domestic issue and cannot be blamed on the neighbor.