ISLAMABAD: Terror struck the federal capital after a break of over one month as at least 24 people were killed and 122 injured when a bomb tore through a fruit and vegetable market on Wednesday.

Most of the victims were vendors and labourers form Fata and Waziristan.

The explosion took place at about 8.15am in an open area reserved for auction of fruits, at the western side of Sabzi Mandi. Over 12 mini-trucks and a few vehicles brought fruits from Okara, Arifwala, Pakpatan, Sharqpur and Kabirwala.

The auction started after Fajr prayers and ended at 7am, the police said. Later Arthis (commission agents) put guavas on sale in the middle of the open place and hundreds of vendors gathered to purchase the fruit. A large number of labourers were also there. Suddenly, there was a huge explosion and the area was littered with human flesh and blood and damaged crates.

“Apparently it was a remote-control explosive device planted in one of the crates of guava and the man who detonated it was believed to have been nearby,” a police official said.

The bomb, weighing five kilograms, was packed with ball-bearings and one-inch nuts and bolts. The explosion created a one foot deep and three feet wide crater.

“The blast was so devastating that a number of vendors and labourers fell unconscious. After regaining their senses they ran for safety,” an eyewitness said, adding that people started shifting the injured from the scene before police and rescue workers reached the area and joined them.

Omar Daraz, who had come to buy guava, told Dawn that he was bargaining with an Arthi when all of a sudden he heard a huge explosion. “The head of a labourer hit me and I fell on the ground,” he added. “I counted dozens of dead bodies.”

A police officer said the number of people killed might be more than 24 because a large number of labourers were Afghans, but they were not among the dead brought to hospitals. He said the Afghans might have taken away the bodies of their men because they were staying illegally.

Abdul Quyyom, a labourer, said: “I fell down after the blast and saw human flesh and blood all over the place.”

Police confiscated 12 mini-trucks which brought guava to Sabzi Mandi, the officer said. He claimed that explosive detectors started beeping during the scanning of one of the trucks which brought fruit from Sharqpur.

“It was suspected that the explosive was in the truck,” he said, adding that the driver of the truck had gone missing.

“Ten people, including eight traders, were picked up for investigation in connection with the blast,” the officer said, adding that these traders brought guava from different parts of Punjab. The other two people hailing from Sharqpur were injured.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told reporters at the scene that an investigation was in progress and involvement of any group or sect in the blast was yet to be established. He said separate teams would investigate the incident. One team will investigate in the capital and the other in areas from where fruits were bought.

He said Sabzi Mandi was spread over an area of 25 acres and 200 to 300 vehicles brought edible items from across the country. “A manual search of the area and vehicles is not possible. Advanced technology is required for security of the area.”

The minister criticised the previous government, accusing it of purchasing four scanners for Rs1 billion. Two of them have yet to come. “The scanners only identify organic material, and not inorganic,” he said. Besides, they do not detect explosives.

In reply to a question, Chaudhry Nisar said the investigation would also determine if the groups opposed to peace talks between the government and Taliban were involved in the attack.

About the growing number of slums in Islamabad, Mr Khan said his ministry and the Capital Development Authority had tried in vain to remove them.

Assistant Inspector General Dr Sultan Azam Temuri told Dawn that teams had been constituted to investigate the incident. Two teams were sent to the areas from where guava was brought. Three teams are collecting details of the injured and the dead, including CNIC numbers, domiciles, fingerprints and mobile numbers. One team was interrogating suspects and collecting details from the traders and vendors of Sabzi Mandi.

A case was registered against unidentified persons. Dr Temuri said the Islamabad chief commissioner had also been requested to constitute a joint investigation team under the SP industrial area.

Sources privy to the investigation said investigators suspected that the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan could be behind the attack. It was based on a threat alert by intelligence agencies that the TTP was planning attacks on law enforcement agencies in Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta.

The place of the blast was located a stone’s throw from the Sazbi Mandi police station and a few kilometres from Police Line Headquarters.

The involvement of Taliban from Afghanistan’s Kunar province could not be ruled out, the sources said, adding that police had arrested four Afghan Taliban who demanded a ransom of Rs20 million from a trader of Sabzi Mandi. The trader was a close aide of a former prime minister.

They claimed that the Afghan Taliban were operating in collusion with TTP Mardan, adding that since the arrest, the trader had been receiving threatening calls made from a border area of Afghanistan.

Our Correspondent from Sheikhupura adds: Two of the people killed in the Sabzi Mandi blast belonged to Vern and Jhabran Mandi villages of Sheikhupura district. Nazeer and Waris Ali were said to be close relatives and running a fruit shop in Rawalpindi. They had gone to Sabzi Mandi to purchase fruits.

Meanwhile, Sharqpur police took into custody Jehangir Sheikh, in charge of a truck stand. According to police, 240 cartons of guava had been loaded from his stand.