The News...The man arrested after shooting at a police kiosk outside the US Consulate General on Friday was a jobless man who was promised a handsome amount for carrying out the attack, investigators said on Saturday.
Investigators said that the man, identified as Zulfiqar Ali, was not a Jihadi despite the fact that during initial investigation he had confessed his alleged links to some local extremists and Abu Sufyan who, according to him, belonged to al-Qaeda.
"We are not ruling out the involvement of a foreign hand in the attack as the investigations made so far reveal that Zulfiqar appeared to be a hired killer. The man, in his mid-twenties, appears to be insane," a senior Rangers official said on the condition of anonymity.
Senior investigators said that Zulfiqar lived in house No 50, Street No 9, Naval Colony at Hub River Road along with his married elder brother Iftikhar. He hailed from Multan and shifted here some 13 years back.
The sources said Zulfiqar was not a religious-minded person. They said he used to offer prayers once in a while in Al-Mustafa mosque situated in Haroonabad, SITE, when he was working in a textile mill. He was jobless for the last six months and owing to that he became a drug addict.
Some two months ago one of his former colleagues introduced him to some people in Al-Mustafa mosque who preached about Jihad to him. One of them, Ansar Mahmood, later introduced Zulfiqar to Abu Sufyan in Clifton. Ansar told Zulfiqar that Abu Sufyan belonged to al-Qaeda and was very rich.
Later, Ansar and others convinced Zulfiqar to attack the police picket at the US Consulate and promised that he would be paid Rs 0.5 million. They told him that it would be a symbolic attack to warn the security agencies that they would face such assaults if they continued protecting Americans.
Zulfiqar and Ansar carried out a survey of the surroundings of the consulate building, security measures and movement of police and Rangers at Abdullah Haroon Road.
Investigators said that according to Zulfiqar, he was assured that the attack would be carried out simultaneously from three sides and he was directed to open fire from Frere Garden. He said three people, including him, Ansar and an unknown man, took part in the operation but no one except him opened fire. He was guaranteed that he would be able to escape after firing a magazine. But one Rangers personnel apprehended him when he tried to flee.
The Rangers arrested some eight people, including Zulfiqar's father and two brothers, during night-long raids. On Saturday, Zulfiqar was remanded to police custody for seven days by the administrative judge of Anti-Terrorism Courts Justice Shabbir Ahmed. |
