Cops identify suicide bomber who killed 149 people at Pakistan rally

Quetta, Pakistan — Pakistani police say investigators have identified the suicide bomber who attacked an election rally in the country’s southwest last week, killing 149 people, including a candidate participating in the July 25 elections.

Senior police officer Aitzaz Ahmad Goraya said Friday that alleged attacker Hafeez Nawaz and his family lived in the southern Sindh province.

The breakthrough in the investigation comes days after Nawaz in a horrific July 13 attack allegedly killed Siraj Raisani and 148 others in Mastun, a town in Baluchistan province.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Goraya said Nawaz and his brother were members of IS-linked Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni extremist group that has killed thousands of minority Shiites and security forces in bomb and gun attacks since 1980s.   /vvp