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City police chief dismissed following Pak mosque attack
Quetta, July 07: The city police chief and two other officers have been dismissed following the suicide assault of a mosque that killed as many as 50 Shiite Muslim worshippers, a top police official said today.
Quetta, July 07: The city police chief and two other officers have been dismissed following the suicide assault of a mosque that killed as many as 50 Shiite Muslim worshippers, a top police official said today.
Quetta city police chief Rehmatullah Niazi and the other officers were dismissed for security lapses that allowed as many as four attackers to storm a mosque in the heart of
the city during Friday prayers last week, said Shoaib Suddle, chief of police of Baluchistan of which Quetta is the capital.
Seventeen people have been arrested for questioning, and authorities are investigating the possibility that al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives hiding out in border regions may have been behind the attack. Quetta lies near the Afghan border. The victims were ethnic Hazaras - a minority that also lives in Afghanistan and was often at odds with the Taliban during their rule that ended in 2001 following a US-led war.
Friday's attack came just weeks after pamphlets threatening attacks by Taliban suicide squads surfaced in Spinboldak, an afghan town not far from Quetta. They were signed by Mullah Akhtar Usmani, formerly the Taliban military commander. Suddle said in a telephone interview that police were still trying to identify the bodies of the attackers. Some Shiite leaders said they were not Pakistani, but did not identify their nationality.
Shiite leaders have promised to stage nationwide demonstrations on Wednesday if by then the government has not made any progress finding the masterminds of the attack.
Bureau Report
Seventeen people have been arrested for questioning, and authorities are investigating the possibility that al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives hiding out in border regions may have been behind the attack. Quetta lies near the Afghan border. The victims were ethnic Hazaras - a minority that also lives in Afghanistan and was often at odds with the Taliban during their rule that ended in 2001 following a US-led war.
Friday's attack came just weeks after pamphlets threatening attacks by Taliban suicide squads surfaced in Spinboldak, an afghan town not far from Quetta. They were signed by Mullah Akhtar Usmani, formerly the Taliban military commander. Suddle said in a telephone interview that police were still trying to identify the bodies of the attackers. Some Shiite leaders said they were not Pakistani, but did not identify their nationality.
Shiite leaders have promised to stage nationwide demonstrations on Wednesday if by then the government has not made any progress finding the masterminds of the attack.
Bureau Report