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Published 04 Feb, 2007 12:00am

Man dies ‘planting bomb’

LAKKI MARWAT, Feb 3: A man was killed when an explosive device went off outside a video shop in Lakki Marwat, 70 km off Dera Ismail Khan in the NWFP, early on Saturday.

Witnesses suspect the man to be militant who was planting the device which went off prematurely.Police said the man appeared to be an Uzbek and parts of the body were dispatched to Peshawar for DNA test.

Officials said that explosion occurred in Ghaznikhel market at 6:17am. A badly-mutilated body was found near the place of occurrence. Parts of the body flew in various directions in and around the market.

"Human flesh was scattered everywhere in the market," said a witness, adding that the intensity of the explosion could be gauged from the fact that his dismembered head was lying a few yards away in Kargil Chowk on Lakki-Mianwali road while his legs and limbs were also scattered on the ground.

Police and paramilitary troops rushed to the spot and cordoned off the site.

Security officials collected parts of the body and also defused a hand-grenade.

Police also recovered parts of a pistol, cellphone and torn-off cap from the site.

Doctors in the city hospital conducted X-rays of the limbs to assess age and height of the dead, hospital sources said.

It is learnt that the SIM of the cellphone and some other belongings of the suspected militant have been handed over to intelligence officials and sniffer dogs have been brought in order to find a clue.

A month ago, owners of video centres in the area had received letters warning them to stop the ‘un-Islamic business or face consequences.’

Agencies add: Area police chief Ashraf Zaman said the attacker, aged about 20, wanted to target the music shop, but he accidentally exploded the device.

“The body of the bomber was blown into pieces but his bearded face remained intact,” he said, adding that preliminary investigations revealed that he was trying to bomb the video shop.

“We saw his body parts, but we have no other information about this terrorist,” he said.

The blast damaged 10 shops, but no one was injured because the market was closed at the time, he said.

No one claimed responsibility for the explosion, but Zaman said officers suspected the hand of radicals who in recent months had distributed pamphlets warning music shops to close down.

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