KARACHI, July 10: President Asif Ali Zardari’s chief security officer Bilal Sheikh was killed in a suspected suicide attack near Guru Mandir here on Wednesday.

Sheikh is the second close aide to the PPP co-chairman slain in Karachi after Khalid Shehnshah who was gunned down near his residence in Defence Housing Authority in 2008.

Wednesday’s blast also left Sheikh’s driver and a fruit vendor dead, according to police and health officials.

Twelve people, at least five policemen deployed for Mr Sheikh’s security among them, were injured.

It was a suicide blast because the head and a leg of a man were found at the blast site, Karachi East DIG Tahir Naveed said.

Police said the explosion left one side of the double-cabin vehicle of Mr Sheikh badly damaged; one leg of the purported bomber was found stuck in a tree and his head in a nearby house.

President Zardari said in a condolence message that it was one of the saddest days of his life. “Sheikh was not only a trusted companion but was like a son to me.”

He said that Sheikh had rendered numerous sacrifices for the Pakistan Peoples Party and was with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in her truck when the procession on her return to Pakistan was attacked in October 2007. Over 200 PPP workers were killed in the incident.

The president appealed to PPP workers to protest peacefully on Thursday and the party called for a day of mourning to be observed across Sindh.“Anti-democratic and extremist mindset is behind the barbaric act of terrorism which needs to be stopped with firmness and unity,” PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said.

“We will not be intimidated by such cowardly acts and they will not deter our resolve to fight terrorism,” he added.

CID SSP Raja Umar Khattab said it appeared that the killers had done ample reconnaissance for the attack.

He said Mr Sheikh was being escorted by police security on his way from the Defence area to his home in Khamosh Colony, Gulbahar. He stopped his vehicle on Mufti Ahmedur Rehman Road, near Guru Mandir, and his driver Irfan Zaidi disembarked to buy fruit from a shop. He sometimes used to buy fruit for his children from there, the police officer quoted one of his guards as saying.

“Mr Sheikh was sitting in the vehicle with his door ajar when the purported bomber came close to him and blew himself up, killing him, the driver and a vendor.”

Since the vehicle was bullet-proof, ball bearings used in the four-five kilogramme explosives did not pierce it.

“He did not die of pellet wounds but of shockwaves,” suggested the senior superintendent of the crime investigation department of police, who has dealt with many bomb blast cases in the metropolis over several years.

He said the precision of the attack and the extent of damage caused to the bullet-proof vehicle could not have been caused by an improvised explosive device. Since Bilal Sheikh had survived two attempts on his life in recent past in the city, the authorities had provided two police vehicles with 14 personnel for his security.

Mohammad Nasir, one of the injured policemen at the emergency ward of the Civil Hospital, said: “I and other cops in his security detail disembarked from police mobiles when the blast took place.” He had pellet wounds on his legs and hands.

He said he had been in Mr Sheikh’s security squad for six months but had never seen him buying fruit at that place. He said Mr Sheikh never told police about his destination.

Mr Sheikh was dead when he was brought to the hospital, CHK’s Medico-Legal Officer Dr Karar Abbasi said. He said a leg of a man, separated from the knee, had also been brought to the mortuary.

Two bodies and the other injured were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

Talking to reporters at the mortuary, former Karachi PPP chief Syed Najmi Alam said: “The president has taken a clear stand against terrorism and by targeting his close aide the terrorists wanted to give a message to him that they could hit him also.”

Karachi PPP president Abdul Qadir Patel said: “Since Thursday is the first day of Ramazan we will not resort to protest or strike but will observe peaceful mourning against the killing.”

He pointed out that the party had lost 500 activists at the hands of terrorists and target killers in Karachi.

Mr Sheikh had been active in the party for 25-30 years, since his schooldays. “He was a Janisar of slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, chief security officer to the president and sometimes he also looked after the security of Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari when he was in the country,” former MNA Patel said.

“Bilal was with Mr Zardari when he was in jail and used to serve him. When he came out of the prison after prolonged incarceration, he was made in-charge of his security because of his loyalty.”

Mr Sheikh’s nephew Abdul Jabbar said he had three children and was a caring man.

The coffin was taken to the home of the deceased from the mortuary in an ambulance.

AFP adds: Bilawal House spokesman Ejaz Durrani said the president was in the city but had no scheduled visit on Wednesday.

Mr Sheikh had also been in charge of Mr Zardari’s private residence in Islamabad. When he became president in 2008 Mr Sheikh was appointed his personal chief security officer, he said.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also condemned the attack, state media said.