LeJ may be behind suicide attack on Pak’s Punjab Home Minister

Home Minister of Punjab Province, and a DSP were among the 19 persons killed when the suicide bombers attacked his political office at his native Shadi Khan village in Attock district, rescue and administration officials said.

A powerful explosion on Sunday destroyed Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada’s office in Pakistan’s Attock city, leaving him and seven others dead.

Inspector General (IG) Punjab Police Mushtaq Sukhera said two suicide attackers carried out the attack.

Late last month, the counterterrorism police in Punjab killed Malik Ishaq, the head of the outlawed LeJ, and Home Minister Khanzada had disclosed details of the operation at a news conference.

Ehsanullah Ehsan, spokesman for the hardline Jamaat-ul-Ahrar faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter, saying it was revenge for the killing of a sectarian militant commander and others.

Punjab is Pakistan’s biggest and wealthiest province.

Inter-Services Public Relations, the mouthpiece of Pakistani army said that the military has provided teams for carrying out rescue operation and also two helicopters for airlifting the seriously injured people to hospitals in Rawalpindi.

Khanzada’s relatives and friends said that he had been facing several death threats and was usually accompanied by his security squad.

The death toll from the suicide attack on a provincial minister’s house in Pakistan has risen to 18, with 19 others wounded, police told EFE on Monday.

“Such dastardly coward attempts can not dent our national resolve to eliminate the menace (of terrorism)”.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has been behind some of the most violent attacks in the region in recent years.

The Minister was listening to complaints and problems of the people of his constituency when the blast occurred.

The group was banned in
Pakistan in 2001 and designated a terrorist group by the US in 2003.