Posted on 12/20/2002 2:40:45 PM PST by knighthawk
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Investigators combing the wreckage of an exploded Islamic militant bomb factory Friday found photographs of a U.S.-owned gas station militants might have been targeting and a possible hit-list of police officials and ethnic leaders.
Police also uncovered additional evidence that a militant linked to the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and the deadly bombing of a U.S. consulate may have been killed in Thursday's explosion.
Police said they were trying to obtain DNA samples from relatives to confirm that a body found at the site belonged to terror suspect Asif Ramzi.
Five people were killed in the blast at the chemical-filled warehouse in Karachi's eastern Korangi neighborhood. Police tentatively identified another victim as Nadim Abbas, a local leader of the outlawed Islamic group Sipah-e-Sahaba.
Karachi police investigation chief Fayyaz Leghari said officers found a photo of a gas station operated by Shell Oil Co. and a list of nine names in the wreckage.
The names included eight Karachi police officials and the leader of the Mutahida Qami Movement, a party representing Indian Muslims who settled in Pakistan after the country's 1947 separation from India, he said. The party may have been targeted by the largely Sunni militants because its membership is largely Shiite, a competing branch of Islam.
``This is possibly a hit list,'' Leghari said.
The Shell gas station appeared to be one located near the army's central munitions depot and an army housing installation in eastern Karachi. Food and ice cream stores are also located at that station.
Police said they found pictures of several other Karachi buildings that might have been potential targets but refused to identify those sites.
The explosion reduced the chemical storage warehouse to rubble, and the five bodies were disfigured beyond recognition. One of Nadim Abbas' brothers identified a set of remains as belonging to the missing militant, but another brother was unable to confirm that.
An apparently fake identification card was found in the wreckage, issued in another man's name but bearing Asif Ramzi's picture. That led police to announce they thought Ramzi was dead.
Ramzi is a the suspect in the killing of Pearl and a bomb attack on the U.S. consulate in Karachi that killed 14 Pakistanis. There has been a $50,000 reward for his capture.
``We cannot say with complete assurance that Asif Ramzi is included among the dead,'' Malik said. He said police were searching for Ramzi's relatives to gather DNA samples.
Police also found a prepaid mobile phone calling card in the rubble believed to have been used by Ramzi. Investigation chief Leghari said the same phone number and card code had been connected to telephoned terror threats in the past — another indication that Ramzi was at the blast site.
Police said they also were questioning Nasreen Sami, who had rented the warehouse to militants believed to be linked to the Lashkar-e-Janghvi Islamic group.
Sami told police she had leased the property through a real estate agent to a man she knew only as ``Ikhlaq'' in August. The real estate agent and a relative of Sami questioned but not detained.
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