Pakistani security forces on Thursday raided the house of the father of the woman suicide bomber from Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) who blew herself up in Karachi University that killed three Chinese teachers and injured another.
The raid was carried out in a society located in Karachi's Scheme 33 and the house has been sealed by the investigation agencies. Laptops and other evidence, including documents, were seized during the raid, Pakistani media reported.
Security agencies in Balochistan on Wednesday also searched the apartment of the suicide bomber, identified as Shari Baloch alias Bramsh, in Gulistan-e-Johar and sealed it afterwards.
The apartment was rented and the bomber had been living there for the last three years. The mother of two young children who carried out the daring suicide attack was an academician, wife of a dentist and came from a well-established family in the restive Balochistan province.
The police on Wednesday launched an investigation into the Tuesday's suicide bombing when an explosion triggered by a burqa-clad woman suicide bomber from BLA ripped through a shuttle passenger van of the Confucius Institute at the prestigious University of Karachi, leaving three Chinese teachers dead and one injured, in the latest targeted attack against Chinese citizens in Pakistan.
A spokesperson for the BLA, the separatist outfit which is banned in Pakistan, the UK and the US, claimed that the attack was carried out by Shari Baloch - the "first female suicide bomber of the brigade".
Pakistani officials believed that the motive of the attack was to sabotage Pakistan and China relations.
Meanwhile, the Karachi University reopened for the first time on Thursday after the suicide attack.
The university's spokesperson said that administrative affairs and the teaching process in the university will continue as usual. However, the Confucius Institute will remain closed until clearance from the Chinese embassy.
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, who visited Karachi after the attack on Wednesday, refrained from commenting on the arrest of the suicide bomber's husband. He neither denied nor confirmed the arrest of her husband identified as Habitan Bashir Baloch.
Haibatan, originally from Kech, was currently doing a public health course at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and was staying at a nearby five-star hotel. However, his wife lived in Gulistan-i-Jauhar with her children.
A counter-terrorism department official said that the bomber and her husband had left their places a week before the attack and the husband's whereabouts were not known. Raids were being carried out to find the husband and other facilitators, he said.
The police have nabbed the rickshaw driver who transported the bomber inside the university.
Newly-appointed Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited the Chinese embassy in Islamabad shortly after he took charge on Wednesday.
Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb told a press conference that the government was reviewing the National Action Plan against terrorism and would bring the perpetrators of the Karachi bombing to justice.
China has demanded stern action against the militant organisations behind the attack.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin during a media briefing asked Pakistan to scale-up security for its nationals working in the country and demanded a thorough investigation and punishment to the perpetrators behind the suicide attack.
The attack that too by a woman suicide bomber from BLA, which is vocally opposing the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), sent shock waves in China as it highlights deep rooted opposition to Chinese projects.
Balochistan, bordering Iran and Afghanistan, is home to a long-running violent insurgency. Baloch insurgent groups have previously carried out several attacks targeting the CPEC projects.
Thousands of Chinese personnel are working in Pakistan on a host of projects being carried out under the aegis of the CPEC.
