ISLAMABAD: When a suicide bomber attacked the Qasr-i-Sakina Imambargah for a second time on Wednesday evening, police still had no idea who was behind an attack on the same worship place that took place over six years ago.

Sources in the police department told Dawn that so far, they had been unable to track down all those involved in the previous terrorist attack on the imambargah. Seven-year-old girl Arooj was killed and two others were injured when a suicide bomber tried to enter the imambargah in Dec 2009.

Sources said that Faisal Bashir Abbasi, a resident of Shakrial, was arrested for his alleged involvement in the previous attack, but the investigation ground to halt with his arrest.

“We arrested the accused Faisal Bashir and also submitted challan, but I don’t know whether he managed to get bail or is still behind bars,” said a senior police official, who was posted at Shahzad Town police station when the last suicide attack at this location took place.

No one seems to be sure what became of the suspect. Some officials said that he had managed to post bail, but others insisted that he was safely behind bars.

Police officials Dawn spoke to said the imambargah’s central location made it an easy target for terrorists. Located right at the peripheries of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, there is some confusion over jurisdiction in this particular location, as it is located in the precincts of both Koral and Sadiqabad police stations.

They said that both Islamabad and Rawalpindi police approximately failed to conduct a complete search operation to collect data of people living near the imambargah.

“It is easy for anyone from the tribal areas to settle in Shakrial, new Shakrial, Iqbal Town, Pindorian, Zia Masjid and other adjacent areas,” a police officer told Dawn on condition of anonymity.

Shakrial was originally a village that was swallowed up by the urban conglomerate of the twin cities. Owing to its past, the area isn’t as well planned or developed as parts of Islamabad proper. The imambargah, too, is quite easily accessible from the Islamabad Expressway, especially for someone on foot.

Raja Shahid, a resident of the area, told Dawn that Shakrial was very densely populated with people from several different parts of the country having moved to this area. “I don’t know who in living in next street and I’ve never seen the police ever bothering to collect data on the people who lived here,” he said.

Published in Dawn February 19th , 2015

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