Two ‘LeJ shooters’ to be arraigned on Jan 16 in Imambargah attack case

An anti-terrorism court on Thursday fixed January 16 to frame charges on two alleged Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) shooters in a case pertaining to hurling hand grenade at an Imam Bargah during a majlis.

A 13-year-boy, Faraz Hussain, was killed and around 21 people, including women and children, were injured in result of the grenade attack on Dar-i-Abbas Imambargah in Federal C Area on the night of October 17, 2016.

The suspected attackers, Asim alias Capri and Ishaq alias Bobby, were recently transferred from the Sukkur prison to the Karachi central prison. They face around 19 terrorism cases and have already been awarded death penalty by a military court for the murder of renowned qawwal Amjad Sabri.

The profile of the suspects, based on the input from the Counter Terrorism Department, describes them as professional hitmen, experts in killing their targets in public, and radicalised from a tender age.

How they did it

On June 22, 2016, Ishaq was waiting at a petrol pump for Asim, who was following Amjad Sabri’s car from his home in Liaquatabad. When Asim reached, Ishaq sat on the motorcycle as they continued to tail Sabri’s car.

Upon getting closer to the car, Ishaq fired three shots from behind. A bullet catcher was attached to his pistol. However, the chamber got stuck and he subsequently got down and pulled out another pistol, fired more shots from the right and from the front. Sabri fell down in the driving seat and the assassins ran away.

After their arrests, the top tier of the LeJ group they belonged to was also arrested. The Inter-Services Public Relations in February 2016 had announced the arrests of the organisation’s Karachi chief, Naeem Bukhari, and the deputy of the Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda’s South Asia group Farooq Bhatti alias Munna, in a press conference at the Karachi Corps Headquarter.