High-ranking authorities believe that Qari Zia-ur-Rahman, a notorious militant, is responsible for the suicide bombing carried out by a female in Peshawar on Thursday.
It was the third suicide attack by women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the adjoining tribal region. In the first case, a woman targeted a food distribution centre in Khar, the agency headquarters of Bajaur, on December 25, 2010, killing 45 people. In the second attack, a female suicide bomber had targeted policemen at Kulachi, Dera Ismail Khan, on June 25.
Through some reliable sources, Pakistan Today came to know that officials confirmed the involvement of Qari in the new trend of suicide attacks. He has established training camps for female suicide bombers in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Qari Zia, according to government circles, also hosts a large number of those militants who escaped from Swat and other parts of Malakand Division. Maulana Fazlullah is the most prominent of them.
The militant commander is not only a headache for Pakistan and Afghanistan but he is also involved in deadly attacks against the US led allied troops. That is the reason why the US Military has described him as a “dual hated” al Qaeda and Taliban leader, as he operates in Kunar and Nuristan provinces of Afghanistan and in the tribal agencies of Bajaur and Mohmand.
Qari Zia is a close ally of Maulvi Faqir Muhammed, the Taliban chief in Bajaur. Maulvi Faqir remained second-in-command to Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a drone strike, in banned outfit Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He also helped TTP Swat chapter in advance towards Buner and Dir in 2009, as he had enjoyed good relations with former Malakand commissioner Syed Muhammad Javed. Qari Zia was also close to al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden. Official sources say that Qari Zia’s fighters are from Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and various Arab states. He is an Afghan national and lived as a refugee in Charmang tehsil of Bajaur Agency.
