KAMRA: The government of Pakistan Muslim League-N experienced on Sunday its first high-profile loss in the war against militancy.

In an attack in Attock district, Punjab Home Minister retired Col Shuja Khanzada and 18 others lost their lives in his ancestral home in village Shadi Khan, some 100 kilometres south-west of Islamabad. Seventeen other people, who also were present inside the minister’s dera, were severely injured.

The attack took place at the dera where more than 35 people had gathered to offer Fateha for a close relative of the home minister who had died on Saturday in the UK.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Hazro Police Shaukat Ali Shah was among the dead. He was providing security to Mr Khanzada and was sitting next to him.

DSP among 18 others killed; Shuja Khanzada’s son says his father was receiving threats over the past few days

The incident took place at around 10.30am.

Though it is too early to put together the exact sequence of events, a suicide attacker is thought to have entered the large room where the gathering took place. The room was similar to a covered veranda and was completely open on at least one side. It is located next to a narrow street and the suicide bomber is thought to have entered it or blown himself up near its narrow entrance on the street.

The roof caved in due to the blast, burying those present underneath.

“Some 35 to 40 people were there when the blast took place,” Ghalib Khan, an old cook of Mr Khanzada, told Dawn.

“I had served tea to the participants of the meeting and placed a cup of tea on the table in front of Khanzada Sahib before leaving the room; within a few minutes the bomb went off,” he added.

It is the first time that such an attack has been carried out on a high-profile member of the PML-N, particularly in Punjab.

Since 2007, a number of leaders and activists from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Awami National Party (ANP) have lost their lives in terrorist attacks. The PTI too has lost a few members in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

In comparison the PML-N has suffered fewer losses.

Recently, a PML-N MPA Rana Shamshad from Gujranwala was shot dead by some unknown attackers and later the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack, according to some media reports.

However, no clue was found by the police and investigating agencies regarding the involvement of the banned TTP in the attack. Neither did the MPA hold any key position in the government or the party.

A former minister, Engineer Amir Muqam, who had joined the PML-N before the 2013 elections, has survived a number of attacks in his home province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

But on Sunday, this appears to have changed. The Punjab home minister was a key member of the PML-N and was playing a key role in the operations against militants in the province.

Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Sukhera told reporters at the blast site that there was a possibility that there were two suicide bombers who struck the building.

“One attacker who entered the dera from the street side blew himself up,” he said.

A senior police official said the head of a suicide bomber had been found.

He added that a head of a calf was also found in the debris, due to which the police would also investigate if an animal had been used in the attack; the intensity of the blast appears to be far more than what can be caused by a suicide jacket.

The narrow street on which the minister’s dera spread over many acres leads to Shadi Khan, a small village with around 2,500 residents, mostly of the Khanzada family.

The police are going to explore if the assassination of Shuja Khanzada is linked to the death of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi chief Malik Ishaq and his sons on July 26. The home minister, who was supervising the National Action Plan in Punjab, had been receiving threats for quite a few days.

“The home minister was receiving threats from a terrorist group,” said a senior police official on the condition of anonymity, though he refused to identify the group.

This was also confirmed by Jehangir Khanzada, the only son of the home minister, who was present in the dera at the time of the attack but escaped unhurt.

Talking to Dawn, he said: “Khanzada Sahib had been receiving threats for the last few days.” He too did not specify any group.

Mr Jehangir said his father reached his hometown from Lahore on Saturday night and the meeting had been scheduled earlier so that the villagers and others could meet him to offer condolences.

By late afternoon, army personnel were leading the rescue operation along with the Rescue 1122 team. The police were present, but they were not leading the operation.

The body of Shuja Khanzada was recovered six hours after the blast; it was identified by his son before it was airlifted to Rawalpindi for autopsy.

The entire Shadi Khan village was in a state of grief as people in nearly every street were preparing for a funeral.

Retired Col Shuja Khanzada, who had also served with the Inter-Services Intelligence, had been in active politics since 2002 when he replaced his uncle Taj Khanzada as a member of the Punjab Assembly. He won the seat for the third consecutive time in 2013 and joined the PML-N.

He was initially made the provincial minister for environment, but was given the additional charge of home when Rana Sanaullah, then home minister, resigned after Lahore’s Model Town incident in which over a dozen workers of Pakistan Awami Tehreek were killed by police.

The suicide attack was widely condemned and glowing tribute was paid to Mr Khanzada for his services to the nation.

The Punjab government announced three days of mourning and the head of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Imran Khan said the PTI would not put up a candidate in the by-election to be held on the seat of the assassinated minister.

Others killed in the attack included DSP Shaukat Ali Shah, Mohammad Fayyaz, Mohammad Ajmal, Mohammad Usman, Sardar Khan, Roman Khan, Haji Zamurrad, Kher Noora, Naseer Khan and Asif Ali.

Late at night, funeral prayers of Mr Khanzada and the other deceased were offered which were attended by Chief Ministers Shahbaz Sharif and Pervez Khattak and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and other political leaders.

Ikram Junaidi adds: The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan has claimed indirect responsibility for the attack on Mr Shuja Khanzada and said that “A brother jihadi organisation had carried out the suicide blast.”

In an email sent to media organisations, purportedly by TTP spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan, the banned outfit thanked a jihadi organisation, without identifying it. However, it was not possible to verify the claim.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play