Indian intelligence agency accused of backing attackers Victim’s relative complains about authorities KARACHI: Niaz Muhammad, a clothing trader from Quetta, had begun feeling his age. So, while preparing to hand down the family business, he would take his 26-year-old son, Muhammad Zahir Shah, on international business visits. Muhammad, who previously traveled to Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong for work, mostly visited China to buy stock for his Quetta outlets. However, the father-and-son duo’s business dreams came to a tragic end when they were killed in a terror attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi on Friday. “This was not the first time my brother was planning to take Zahir Shah with him on a China visit. But none of us knew this would be their last trip,” said family member Habib-ur-Rehman. “He wanted Shah to be trained for his business. My brother would say, ‘I have become older, I need rest.’ “Now he is resting in peace, but his hopes of training his son couldn’t be fulfilled,” Rehman said. Rehman said his brother and nephew left for Karachi by road on Thursday and stayed overnight in the southern port city. “They ate their last breakfast together and then hurried to the Chinese consulate in Clifton, where they were supposed to meet their travel agent and register their fingerprints. “We don’t know if the agent was late or if he had already entered the consulate, but death was waiting for them as soon as they got there. Death was telling them their next destination was not Beijing,” he said. Rehman said Zahir Shah was his father’s best friend and would always accompany his father on visits to hotels and restaurants. “Their bond was so strong. They lived together and, together, left this world for eternal peace,” Rehman said. Zahir Shah was the eldest of seven children and married four years ago. “He has two daughters. The eldest, who is 2 years old, was very attached to her father. She must be really missing him.” Seven people, including two police officers, died when the terror attack was foiled. Three terrorists were killed by security forces, according to Sindh police. Rehman complained that while people were lining up to praise the police and security forces, the bodies of his brother and nephew were left in Karachi for 12 hours. “The Sindh government didn’t even provide us with an ambulance to bring them to Quetta. No one from the Balochistan government has visited us. It seems that the policemen were Pakistanis and we are aliens.” A report on the consulate attack by Pakistan’s counter-terrorism department recommended terror charges be brought against Hyrbyair Marri, a London-based and Baloch separatist leader, and senior members of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA). “Behind this attack were their masterminds, facilitators and directors, including Hyrbyair Marri,” the report said. According to police, the BLA’s Fedayeen Sarbaz of Majeed Brigade, which gets support from India’s intelligence agency RAW, has claimed responsibility for the attack. The BLA named the attackers as Azal Khan, Raziq Baloch and Raees Baloch. The counter-terrorism department identified one of the attackers mentioned in the BLA claim as Abdul Raziq, an agricultural engineering department employee in Balochistan’s Kharan district. The police report called the Friday assault “an unsuccessful and shameful effort to damage Pak-China relations.” Yao Jing, China’s ambassador to Pakistan, visited Syed Murad Ali Shah, the Sindh chief minister on Saturday. “He expressed profound grief over the loss of two policemen and two civilians,” Rasheed Channa, a spokesman for the provincial government, said. The chief minister said police had been ordered to conduct a security audit. Meanwhile, security forces deployed at the Sindh-Balochistan border have been told to strengthen their security and checking systems. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan described the assault as a “conspiracy against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.”