Blast’s link with Macedonian encounter being studied
By Syed Raza Hassan
KARACHI, Dec 5: Investigators are looking for possible links between the blast which occurred early Thursday morning in the office of the honorary Consul General of Macedonia here, claiming three lives, and an encounter back in Macedonia early this year in which seven suspected Pakistanis had been killed, a senior police official told Dawn.
Several hours later, three bodies were found in the debris by the police here. This was partly reported in this paper on Thursday.
The Macedonian police had shot dead seven suspected militants in a shoot-out in the suburbs of the capital, Skopje, on March 2.
The Macedonian interior minister, Ljube Boskovski, had said then the dead were probably Pakistanis and had been planning attacks on vital installations.
The Macedonian police found AK-47 rifles and grenade launcher in, or near, the van used by the suspects.
Footage showed to the press showed what appeared to be identity cards having the names of Omar Farooq and Bilal Husain.
On Oct 7, Ansar Burny Welfare Trust brought back the bodies of the six Pakistanis.
Besides Farooq and Husain, the bodies of Mohammad Asif, Khalid Iqbal, Ajaz Ahmed and Muhammad Riaz were flown back to the country by the trust.
Police in Karachi said that only one body of Hameed Masih, aged 55, a night watchman, was identified by the honorary consul, Bilal Qureshi, the brother of former caretaker prime minister, Moin Qureshi, on Wednesday night.
However, the bodies of unidentified man and woman were also found several hours after the removal of the debris.
Police said all the bodies were trussed up and their throats slit. They were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.
Talking to newsmen at the scene of the blast on Wednesday night, Sindh’s Inspector General Police, Syed Kamal Shah, said the premises had been rented by Bilal Qureshi, who expressed surprise over the presence of the man and woman, both of whom remain unidentified.
Police are looking at all angles, and the possibility of terrorism cannot be ruled out, he said.
The blast, which occurred at around 1am, ripped through the entire back portion of the house, including the staircase.
A deep crater was seen at the site of the blast, but the explosives experts were still not sure about its intensity or about the type of explosive employed.
Explosives experts of the Pakistan Navy are also examining the site for fragments.
Police also found a motorcycle parked inside the premises along with a helmet and are trying to ascertain who do these belong to.
“Maybe through its ownership the identity of the second man could be established,” a police official said.
However, windowpanes of the adjacent house were not damaged due to the impact of the blast.
Yousaf Masih, son of Hameed Masih, told reporters that his family had talked to his father on Thursday evening over telephone.
