KARACHI: Masoom Billa, alias Abu Bakar, who was arrested in relation to the bomb blast in Karachi targeting Sindh High Court's Justice Maqbool Baqar has admitted to his involvement in the planning of the attack before a local court on Wednesday.
The court subsequently ordered the judicial remand of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi's Billa, who was produced before the court by police, until July 29.
In a statement in court today, Billa said he and his accomplices had worked on the planning of the attack at the residence of Bashir Leghari, another LJ man who had been "detained in injured condition after a serious encounter" on July 17 and died shortly afterwards. Leghari was named as the prime suspect in the bombing of June 26 which was on the contrary claimed by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Billa also spoke of an explosives-laden motorbike which had been taken to Burns Road for the purpose of carrying out the attack on the senior judge.
He said the explosives were detonated using a remote control as Justice Baqar's vehicle began crossing a particular patch of the road.
Billa was moreover identified in the court by an eye-witness who testified that the LJ man himself had detonated the explosives.
Justice Baqar, who was the target of the June 26 attack, miraculously survived the bombing. His driver and eight security personnel escorting him died in the attack.
The blast was so powerful that one of the motorcycles of the Rangers personnel flew and landed on the roof of a mosque and the other on the roof of a nearby home.
The explosion blew the car of the justice, police mobiles and two motorcycles of Rangers into pieces. The bomb moreover caused a two feet deep crater on the spot. Windowpanes of homes and shops within the 30-metre area were shattered.