RAWALPINDI: Local police investigating the bombing of Chittian Hattian Imambargah in January have detained the brother of a death cell inmate for questioning.

Two other persons tried with convict Hafiz Mohammad Nawaz for the murder of the Imambargah caretaker Aun Mohammad Rizvi in 1999, are also sought by the police.

They are suspected of having facilitated the latest attack on the Imambargah, which killed six people and injured 15 on January 9.

Police sources said the brother of Hafiz Nawaz was picked up in Lahore where he used to stay on his way to Bahawalpur to visit Nawaz who is on the death row since being sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in 2011.

Six others tried with him for the murder were acquitted.

Rawalpindi police are interested in questioning them in connection with the January 9 attack on the Imambargah. Two of them are specifically sought as possible facilitators since they had been in contact with two top leaders of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group in Rahim Yar Khan two days before the attack and then mysteriously disappeared.

One was traced in Dubai but the other, who was living in Banni, is missing with his family.

However, a senior police officer close to the investigation told Dawn that the latest attack on the Imambargah did not appear to be linked to any terrorist group but to the fate of Hafiz Nawaz on the death row.

“It is a simple case of an attempt by the family of convict Hafiz Nawaz for a patch up with the heirs of Aun Mohammad Rizvi which failed,” he said.

“Police have talked to the people who were involved in the effort.”

After police get hold of the two missing suspects, the case will be solved, the officer said.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2015

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