KARACHI: Police fail to make headway: Nishtar Park blast probe
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, April 15: Police have failed to make headway into the investigation of the Nishtar Park bomb blast that killed 47 people and injured over 100 others.
Sources in the police department said that most of the evidence was destroyed, as the police could not make their way into the place of the incident for many hours. The blast was followed by violence and presence of people destroyed most of the evidence there. Sources said that available evidence was, however, collected.
Police suspected that a suicide bomber blew himself at the stage, as an unidentified head found from the spot could be that of the suicide bomber. All other victims of the tragedy have been identified. Police tried to establish the identity of the suspected suicide bomber but could not succeed in their efforts.
Sources said that rescue workers had shifted many bodies and injured to different hospitals. They also brought a piece of human leg from knee to toe from Nishtar Park to the civil hospital, which disappeared mysteriously. However, some limbs remained lying in the mortuary of the hospital, where they started decaying. The medico-legal section called the police and handed over the limbs to the police, which were later kept at Edhi cold storage.
A senior doctor in the Police Surgeon office confirmed about limbs but expressed ignorance regarding the piece of human leg.
A police official said that he was surprised over the disappearance of leg from the mortuary of the hospital. The leg was believed to be that of suicide attacker, whose head was taken to the JPMC, he said.
Sources said that an inspection at the spot was carried out by the Director General of the Inter Services Intelligence and his team along with some senior police officers. The ISI team drew maps of the scene and minutely inspected the crime scene. The ISI started investigation after the Sunni Tehrik demanded of the federal government to initiate the inquiry either by ISI or by the Military Intelligence.
The police have also failed to solve the case of a car bombing near the US Consulate on March 2 that killed four people including a US diplomat and his Pakistani chauffer and injured 54 others.
The city police chief at a news conference the same night had said: “It was the suicide attack and we have found some important clues to the suspects involved in the explosion. We have collected all available evidence and we are working on it. Many things will be clear soon,” he had stated.
The task to solve the consulate bombing case was given to the DIG Investigation Zone-1. The local police were assisted by the agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Despite the lapse of one-and-a-half months, police failed to solve that case and the same investigation team has once again assigned to investigate into Nishtar Park tragedy.
