ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday announced a financial package of one crore rupees for the family of a cab driver killed on Friday in an attack in the Pakistani capital.
A powerful car bomb detonated in a residential area in Islamabad, killing two suspected militants and a police officer, police said, raising fears that militants had established a presence in one of the country’s safest cities.
Pakistani Taliban have stepped up attacks on security forces since November, when they unilaterally ended a months-long ceasefire with the country’s government.
"On the instructions of the Prime Minister, the check of the financial package was handed over to the family of Syed Sajjad Haider Shah," a statement from the PM Office said, adding that investigators had concluded Shah had no connection with the terror plot.
The cab driver belonged to District Chakwal and lived in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, neighbouring Islamabad. He is survived by his wife and four children.
Authorities say Pakistani militants were believed to be on their way to carrying out a suicide bombing in Islamabad's government district when a police pursued the taxi cab they were travelling in.
The interior ministry said the vehicle was on its way towards for a high-value target in the capital, without giving details, while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said timely intervention by the police had averted a "bloodbath."
The car exploded near police headquarters on a main road leading to a government sector where parliament and the offices of senior officials are located. The Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, claimed the car bombing, saying it was revenge for the killing of one of their leaders.
The latest violence comes days after several Pakistani Taliban detainees overpowered their guards at a counterterrorism center in northwestern Pakistan, snatching police weapons and taking three officers hostage.
On Tuesday, Pakistan’s special forces raided the detention center, triggering an intense shootout in which the military later said 25 detainees linked to the Pakistani Taliban were killed in Bannu, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and part of a former tribal region.
Three troops and at least three hostages were killed in that incident.
The government has since stepped up security across the country, based on intelligence reports that the TTP had dispatched fighters to carry out attacks at public places and police stations.
The Pakistani Taliban are separate but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in neighboring Afghanistan last year as US and NATO troops withdrew after 20 years of war. Since then, top TTP leaders and fighters have been hiding in Afghanistan.
