Pioneer of suicide attacks in South Asia dies in Afghanistan blast

ISLAMABAD: The man who introduced suicide terrorism in South Asia following the 9/11 attacks on the US, has died in a mine blast in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and his colleagues and friends have brought his body back to Layyah where he has been buried, militant circles and his family told The News.

Saifur Rehman Saifi, 40, was declared by General Musharraf as the mastermind of the first three suicide attacks in Pakistan against Christians.

Musharraf in his autobiography, “In the line of fire,” mentioned Saifi’s alleged role in the first three suicide attacks pointing out that he was arrested on August 14, 2002. He joined militancy in Layyah, Punjab, at the age of 20 when it was officially declared as Jihad back in 1995 by joining the Harkutul Ansar, now a defunct organisation.

After joining the militant group, he went straight to Afghanistan and got training of violence and warfare and in the years to come his expertise made him the trainer at a militant training camp where he would spend the next three years teaching tactics of hit-and-run game and many others to scores of his students, which are recruited every year in the nurseries of militant organisations.

Later, according to Musharraf, when Azhar got assured that he was not going to be handed over to India, he directed Maulana Jabbar to stop the attacks. However, at that time, Saifi had started his work as the first commander of a group named, “Fidayeen” and he started carrying out attacks and the first target was a church located in Islamabad’s Diplomatic Enclave where a man killed six people including foreigners and later detonated himself.

The man was reportedly trained and sent by Saifi. In the coming months, a similar attack on a church in Taxila and a Christian school on August 5, 2002 were carried out.—Published in The News