Kamboh had a plan to attack Gilani
Thursday, July 16, 2009
By Mazhar Tufail
ISLAMABAD: Riaz Kamboh, who was arrested by the law-enforcement agencies with injuries after a huge blast at his house in a village on the outskirts of Mian Channu on Monday, revealed he had finalised a plan to attack Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani during his next visit to his hometown, Multan, an investigator told The News on Wednesday.
Kamboh, who is known as a one-man think tank among the extremists, had been using his house to store explosives and weapons since 1999 and had also established a network of such depots in Sargodha, Okara and elsewhere in the southern Punjab for storing explosives said the investigator, wishing anonymity. Kamboh has been playing the role of a handler and facilitator and his house had been a control centre for all the recent terrorism acts in the Punjab, he added.
The investigator told The News members of Kambohs network of terrorists, who had been apprehended since the Mian Channu blast, also included a most wanted person who fled Lal Masjid just before the operation was launched to purge the worship place of terrorists.
When the government had clamped a ban on various extremist organisations after 9/11, Kamboh facilitated a large number of members of such outfits to flee to Afghanistan as he had very good connections in the war-torn neighbouring country, the investigator disclosed.
The investigator said Kamboh was among the people who believed in the philosophy of the banned Egyptian organisation, Ikhwanul Muslimeen (Muslim Brotherhood) which, besides the infidels, also preached Jihad as obligatory against the pro-US and pro-West Muslims.
Riaz Kamboh often used to quote Riaz Basra, the founder of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant outfit who was killed on May 14, 2002, as saying that we need not bring suicide bombers from homes but thanks to the Punjab Police people are voluntarily joining, said the investigator.
Kamboh had a plan to attack Gilani