ISLAMABAD – Pakistani security forces on Friday killed the mastermind ofthe country’s worst suicide attack in an early morning shootout in thesouthwest province of Balochistan, officials said.
The operation was carried out on an intelligence tip-off about the presenceof an Islamic State (IS) operative identified as Hidayat Ullah in a housein Darenjo village of Qalat district in the restive province.
“The Frontier Corps (FC) raided the house and killed Hidayat Ullah after astrong resistance from him,” Qaisar Khan, a senior administration officialin Qalat, told AFP.
A senior FC official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP Ullahwas facilitator of Hafeez Nawaz, who carried out the suicide bombing lastweek which killed 149 in Mastung.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack at anelection rally in Balochistan’s Mastung district.
Provincial authorities identified the bomber as Nawaz, a Pakistani nationalwho stayed in Afghanistan and “waged jihad” against international troopsbefore carrying out the suicide attack in Mastung.
A senior administration official in Mastung district Qaim Lashari alsoconfirmed the Qalat raid.
“Hidayat Ullah led a group of IS operatives, who are present in differentareas of Balochistan, and we hope to track them down pretty soon,” theofficial added.
News of Ullah’s death coincided with a small explosion in Chaman districtbordering Afghanistan which wounded four people.
The bomb planted on a motorbike apparently targeted an FC vehicle and wentoff seconds after it passed by.
Oil and gas-rich Balochistan is regularly hit by homegrown militancy andsectarian violence.
Violence in Pakistan has however dropped significantly since the country’sdeadliest-ever militant attack, an assault on a school in the northwesterncity of Peshawar in 2014 that killed more than 150 people, most of themchildren.
Pakistan’s military intensified operations against militants in the tribalareas along the border with Afghanistan in the wake of that attack, leadingto dramatic security improvements.