KARACHI: Police yet to find clue to culprits of blast
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, April 13: Investigators are yet to find a clue to perpetrators of Nishtar Park blast. Investigators believed that there was a group of perpetrators, who planned a well-organized attack and they succeeded in their evil design.
“We definitely know that the bomber blew himself up, but what needs to be known is whether he was alone or not,” Niaz Siddiqui, Karachi police chief, told a wire service.
“There are three bodies and a body-less head which are still to be identified.”
“I don’t think that anyone else among the dead except whose severed head has been found is involved in the bombing”, DIG Investigation Zone-I, Manzoor Mughal told Dawn here on Thursday night.
Mr Mughal, who was not convinced till Wednesday night that it was a suicide attack, said: “Now I am sure that it was a suicide bombing”.
He quoted witnesses to substantiate his stance, and said the suicide attacker came close to the stage where people were offering prayers, jumped on the stage, and detonated the bomb.
He said the suicide attacker would have been provided with logistic support by perpetrators and they must have watched him at a safer distance. He said that the police were trying to establish the identity of the suicide bomber.
The police have released the photograph of a suspected suicide bomber who still remains unidentified. An appeal has been made to the people to come forward and inform the police if they know the man. Besides the unidentified head, the identity of three bodies is yet to be established.
An injured, Mohammad Hussain Balti, who had been picked up from Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, was questioned for his alleged involvement in the blast. However, an investigator said the injured did not appear to have been involved in the explosion.
He said Mohammad Hussain had suffered minor injuries and went to the JPMC for treatment and in greed of compensation. “Had he been involved in the attack, he would have never gone to hospital for treatment”, he maintained.
Meanwhile, officials said judicial probe ordered into Nishtar Park tragedy was being extended to cover the stampede at Faizan-i-Madina last Sunday.
The Nishtar Park incident was the second carnage in the history of the city. Earlier in 1987, two bomb explosions with brief intervals at the crowded commercial area of Bohri Bazaar in Saddar killed more than 70 people.
