|
|
|
| August 05, 2006 | Saturday | Rajab 9, 1427 |
‘Blast in oil tanker an act of terrorism’
KOHAT, Aug 4: Intelligence agencies have termed Thursday’s blast in an oil tanker in Kohat an act of terrorism, which the police claimed to have been caused by a gas cylinder, official sources said on Friday.
The oil tanker was carrying petrol to Afghanistan when it was blown up on the hilly track between Kohat and Darra Adamkhel, killing its cleaner, Shafiq, of the Khyber Agency, and wounding its drivers Bawar Khan and Zareef Khan.
The police and bomb disposal squad had termed the blast an accident caused by a gas cylinder, but investigations conducted by intelligence officials and doctors, who conducted autopsy of the victim, said it was a hand grenade attack. The police officials were still adamant that it was an accident.
According to one of the injured drivers, somebody from a pick-up hurled something on them. The cleaner of the truck was examining it when it blew up.
The device used in the attack was a pellets filled hand grenade, the sources said.
The tanker driver told investigators that they usually carried gas cylinders in winter with them and used them only in Jalalabad. Moreover, the gas cylinder in truck was still intact and it could not cause blast because windows of the truck were open and there was no smell of gas.
The medical report had also mentioned the cause of the death of the cleaner due to bomb blast injuries (BBI).
However, the Janglekhel police in its report mentioned that it was an accident caused by a gas cylinder explosion and not a terrorist attack and filed the case, quoting PAF bomb disposal squad.
|
|
|
|
