PESHAWAR, March 5: The shrine of Pashto mystic poet and saint Rehman Baba was bombed early on Thursday morning in Hazarkhwani area, badly damaging the structure.

The massive blast jolted people out of deep slumber in the nearby villages. Officials speculated that the bombing was aimed at frightening women off the shrine.

The shrine’s watchman had received a threat from suspected militants on his cellphone three days ago.

The high-intensity bombs almost destroyed the grave of the saint poet and gates of a mosque, canteen and conference hall in the spacious Rehman Baba Complex.

Police said the bombers had planted explosives around the pillars of the tomb to pull down the mausoleum.

Visibly shaken disciples of the saint, apprehending that the badly damaged structure of the shrine might come crashing down any moment, brandished sticks to force visitors to clear out.

Police said their suspicions fell on Lashkar-i-Islam chief Mangal Bagh.

“We have been able to give them a black eye and this is their way of getting back at us. It’s pure desperation,” a senior police official told Dawn.

Bomb disposal squad personnel said that five explosives, each weighing around five kilograms, were planted at the shrine.

The explosives were packed in containers which had been jointly connected and detonated simultaneously.

“The entire area was covered with thick smoke and dust after the blast,” Sardar Khan, president of the volunteers of the shrine association, told Dawn.

“A major portion of the grave was blown up and the building badly damaged, but luckily no one was present there,” he said.

Some “Taliban-like people” having long hair and beards used to come there and ask the caretaker why he had not barred women from visiting the shrine.

“Once two Taliban came and said that saying prayers in the complex mosque was haram. I told them to get lost,” the chief volunteer said.

He said that apparently the militants had entered the complex by scaling the boundary wall from the rear side and planted the explosives beneath the four main pillars and one in the grave by connecting them through an electric wire.

NWFP Minister for Culture and Tourism Syed Aqil Shah said although the complex was under the authority of the archives department, he would take up the matter of repairs and reconstruction with the chief minister.

The caretaker said three watchmen used to perform duty on rotation. This meant that only one guard was present at any given moment.

A watchman said that he was preparing for Fajr (morning) prayers when he heard a loud blast. “I was puzzled and couldn’t decide as to what I should do,” he said. “I had no weapon to resist any attacker.”

Caretakers and other employees said that they had time and again informed officials of the archives library to beef up security at the complex, but to no avail.

Malik Wazir, a member of the Rehman Baba Adabi jirga, said it was impossible for one watchman to keep an eye on all visitors spread over such a vast area.

He suggested that there must be at least three watchmen armed with weapons in each shift.

The nearby Akhun Baba graveyard had become a safe haven for vagabonds and no one could safely pass through the Rehman Baba Road after evening.

The tomb was a part of the spacious complex housing a conference hall, library, mosque, canteen, guest house, shrines of some other saints.

Construction of the complex began on Nov 17, 1991 and finished in 1994 at an estimated cost of Rs15 million.
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