TTP behind attack: Experts

ISLAMABAD The initial assessment of experts into Fridays attacks on the Parade Lane Mosque, Rawalpindi, suggests that it was work of banned outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to kill high-value targets including the son of Corps Commander Peshawar who is leading the military operation in South Waziristan and Swat. TheNation has reliably learnt that the blasts that killed nearly 40 people, including senior serving army officers, were planned by Qari Hussain, a powerful commander of TTP Chief Hakimullah Mehsud. According to military sources, four senior military officers including a major general have embraced martyrdom, while former Vice Chief of the Army staff Gen (Retd) Yousuf was wounded. The sources informed that Director General Armoured Corps Maj. Gen. Bilal Omar Khan, Brig Rauf, and his son Adil Rauf, were martyred in the attack. Nine-year-old Ayyan Ahsan, son of Maj Ahsan Waqar, also embraced Shahadat while his father sustained injuries. The sources further informed that Hashim son of Corps Commander Peshawar Lt. Gen. Masood Aslam and Bilawal Riaz son of Maj. Gen. Naseem Riaz were among the martyred. The sources further disclosed that Qari Hussain had also planned the abortive suicide mission in front of the Naval Complex in Islamabad on Wednesday in which two Navy personnel were killed.

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