ISLAMABAD, June 15:
Militants today destroyed Jinnah Residency at Ziarat, a popular hill station in Baluchistan, where Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah spent his last days.
The historic monument in the insurgency hit province was poorly guarded at the time of the attack in the early hours.
The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility for setting on fire the two-storey wooden structure, which is visited by tourists from home and abroad every day.
All old memorials inside the residency have been destroyed and the building suffered extensive damage, a local police official was quoted as saying by TV channels, Dawn News and Express News.
Jinnah stayed in the Quaid Azam Residency while recovering from a lung disease in 1948, a year after he succeeded in his mission to carve out Pakistan as the ‘land of the pure’ from India.
The building is a national heritage site. The militants pulled down the national flag and hoisted the BLA flag, according to Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar.
Balochistan Chief Minister Abdul Malik Baloch has promised to bring the perpetrators of the attack to book. Speaking at Quetta, the provincial capital, he also announced that Jinnah’s residence would be reconstructed ‘in its original form’.
According to the police, four militants on two motorcycles entered the residency and hurled hand held bombs while rockets were fired at the building from nearby hills, killing a police man on sentry duty.
Memorial chairs, beds, and historic photographs of Jinnah were burnt to the ground in the resulting fire. ‘Wood structure of the residence has been gutted but the exterior concrete structure is still intact’, reports said.
Several houses nearby also were damaged.
Bomb disposal squad, which reached the place after the militants escaped unhurt, defused six more bombs planted inside the residency, Dawn. Com reported.
Leader of the Opposition in Pakistan Parliament (National Assembly) Khurshid Shah condemned the targeting the historic monument. He said the opposition would not remain silent on the issue as the attack on the residency was an attack on the ideology Jinnah represented and the country upheld with its smooth transition from one elected regime to another. (UNI)
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