Militant wanted in attacks on Hazara community arrested

ISLAMABAD: A militant having blood on his hands of more than 40 members of the Hazara community, including the Mach attack he masterminded killing a dozen coal miners of the same ethnicity, has finally been apprehended by a civilian agency, the Intelligence Bureau, when he entered Pakistan from Afghanistan.

Son of a baildar, a low-rank government employee, Abdul Bari, had been on the watchlist of all security agencies since January 2021 when he together with affiliates slaughtered 11 coal miners of the Hazara community in a ruthless attack, which was claimed by Daesh. The incident led to the Hazara community protesting for consecutive six days with dead bodies at the Western Bypass in Quetta, asserting that they would not bury them unless the-then prime minister Imran Khan visited them. The burial took place only after the PM visited them.

The massacre had taken place near Mach, which is close to the border with Afghanistan, when armed militants kidnapped the miners from their residence and took them to nearby mountains. A horrific video from the scene showed victims’ bodies scattered across the floor of a small hut with their hands bound together. All agencies had since looked out for the terrorist responsible. The IB has been keeping an eye on him right in Afghanistan waiting for him to return to Pakistan.

As he planned to visit his family in Mastung unaware that his movements were being tracked, Abdul Bari was taken into custody on his way to Quetta from Spin Boldak (Afghanistan). He carried out his activities from the lawless bordering region of Afghanistan.

Abdul Bari’s exploits into terrorism and sectarian-based violence began in his early years when he remained a student of various seminaries in Karachi and Rahim Yar Khan.

He has been associated with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Afghanistan for more than 10 years. During his studies in Karachi, some of the Baloch students from Turbat, affiliated with Taliban, were involved in brainwashing the students to join them.

Some of the students, including Abdul Bari, were persuaded to move to Afghanistan where they were offered 40 days training. In 2015, Abdul Bari again went to Afghanistan and participated in many of the Taliban operations against the US and NATO forces. Meanwhile, he also remained associated with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and carried out sectarian attacks in Pakistan. Later, he joined Daesh.

In 2020, when Abdul Bari graduated from a madrassa in Rahim Yar Khan, he was informed by one Qari Ubaid Ullah in Afghanistan about the plan of a Daesh associate regarding the attack on Hazaras in Mach. Abdul Bari agreed to the plan and execution of attack. Subsequently, Bari, along with Qari Ubaid Ullah and two Afghans, met five Daesh associates to devise a plan to attack the coal miners of Hazara ethnicity in Mach.

Besides the Mach attack, Abdul Bari was also an architect of a number of terrorist attacks spanning over more than a decade. In October 2011, he along with his associates intercepted a bus which carried about 30 passengers, including about 25 Hazaras. They entered the bus and opened fire at the passengers, killing 14 of them. They allowed the non-Hazaras to leave before shooting the others to death.

Abdul Bari also orchestrated Abdullah Shah Ghazi Mazar attack in October 2010, killing 10 and leaving dozens of people injured. They also surveilled the target Imambargah in Saddar, Karachi. However, seeing the better security there, they cancelled the plan of attack and decided to target the Abdullah Shah Ghazi Mazar, where they conducted twin suicide blasts.

Later, in April 2013, he along with three associates, ambushed a shoe-making store on the main intersection located on Prince and Masjid Road, Quetta, and killed six Hazaras besides injuring three others. After joining Daesh in 2016, Abdul Bari would collect chanda/charity from drug traffickers and other well-off people, using the name of Taliban in Helmand (Afghanistan) and Chagai (Balochistan). He would hand over the money to his Daesh associates, which would later on be used in Daesh activities both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In December 2017, Daesh had attacked a Methodist Church in Quetta, killing nine and injuring 56 others. The finances for the attack inter alia had also come from Abdul Bari’s chanda collection.