Brigadier, driver killed in Islamabad shooting

Friday, October 23, 2009




* Army says ‘act of terrorism’ aimed at making news
* Police brand attack ‘target killing’
* Officials suspect Taliban responsible for killing

By Fazal Sher

ISLAMABAD: Unidentified gunmen attacked an army jeep in the federal capital on Thursday, killing a brigadier and his driver and critically injuring a guard.

Police officials said Brig Moinuddin Haider was en route to his office in Rawalpindi when the assailants fired at his jeep at around 8:45am near Street No 5, G-11/1.

Police and witnesses put the number of assailants at two – aged between 18-to-20 years – and said they were riding a motorbike. “One of the attackers ... [fired at] the jeep from the front side, and the other from the backside,” they said. The injured guard and the bodies were immediately taken to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), where the guard is being treated at an intensive care unit. Doctors said his condition was critical.

Law-enforcement agencies cordoned off the area, and launched a search operation using sniffer dogs, but could not track down the assailants – who disappeared in an adjoining residential area.

“It was an act of terrorism,” military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency. “The purpose was to kill and make news.”

Brigadier Moin was a resident of Sector F-11/4, and arrived in Pakistan on leave a few days ago from Sudan – where he was part of a UN peacekeeping mission.

Officials suspect that the Taliban are likely behind the assassination – ordered in retaliation against the military offensive in South Waziristan.

IG Kaleem Imam said it was “a target killing”, and the assailants had been monitoring the route of the brigadier. “A team headed by DIG Bin Yamin has been formed to investigate the attack,” he said.

He said a “massive search operation” had also been ordered in Sector G-11 and other areas of Islamabad. “A number of mosques and seminaries have been established in Islamabad without the approval of authorities ... we will take action against them,” he said.

The IG said police were also searching seminaries in Islamabad, and had arrested around 60 people.

The president and the prime minister have condemned the attack.