Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada killed in terror attack

First Information Report (FIR) was registered in Rangoo police station against unidentified attackers for Sunday’s deadly attack in Attock that claimed the life of Punjab home minister Colonel (retd) Shuja Khanzada. The death of seven has been confirmed by the officials but the toll can go up as the rescuers are still looking for the bodies in the rubble.

On the whole Twelve people were killed and 25 others injured by the blast, Radio Pakistan reported.

The security forces rescued all the people who had been trapped under debris and those with minor injuries have already been released from hospitals, Ghazanfar said.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said in a statement that “the courage and valor of Shuja Khanzada is a message to the masterminds of terrorists that they are bound to be defeated”.

Provincial police chief Mushtaq Sukhera said the bombing was a reaction of a yearlong police crackdown against the Islamic militants, which Khanzada had been leading from the front.

Punjab CM Shahbaz, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CM Pervaiz Khattak, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Speaker KP Assembly Asad Qasir as well as several federal, Punjab and KP ministers attended the prayers.

Director General Inter-Services Public Relations Asim Bajwa condemned the terrorist attack on the Punjab home minister, saying that Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif had ordered intelligence agencies to help find the perpetrators.

“The attack will not deter our national resolve to eliminate the menace of terrorism”, the army chief said.

He says the powerful blast brought down the roof of the hall where Khanzada’s meeting was taking place, trapping many under the rubble.

Minister Col Shuja Khanzada assumed the charge of home ministry in October 2014 and has been actively involved in major operations against terror outfits in the province.

The late Khanzada frequently spoke out publicly against militants and defended controversial measures such as the restoration of the death penalty in Pakistan following a vicious Taliban attack on a school in the northern city of Peshawar in December previous year.

The Punjab government revealed that Khanzada had been receiving threats over past few days.