Police clueless about Lahore suicide attacks
LAHORE, March 12: While Lahore police appear to be clueless about Tuesday’s devastating suicide attacks on Federal Investigation Agency’s headquarters on Temple Road and the office of an advertising agency in Model Town, reports about presence of about half-a-dozen would-be suicide bombers in the city sent shivers down their spine on Wednesday.
After receiving the report, what police could do immediately was to barricade a portion of a road facing the office of the Inspector-General of Police in the Old Anarkali area.
Other government buildings in the city are doing the same. According to a senior police officer, the Lahore police had beefed up security and were looking for the suspected terrorists in Lahore and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, police and the Federal Investigation Agency’s Special Investigation Group collected evidence from the sites of Tuesday’s suicide attacks.
“We have still found no clue to Tuesday’s devastating suicide bombings and no arrests have been made,” DIG Tussadaq Husain told Dawn.
He said he hoped that investigation teams would soon get a lead. Suspected terrorists, who had been detained in connection with a suicide bombing at the Navy War College on March 4, were being interrogated also about Tuesday’s blasts.
Police have so far collected the chassis numbers of the two vehicles used in the bombings and limbs of the bombers had been sent for DNA tests.
Two investigation teams have been working on different lines. One of them is trying to determine if the two mini-trucks had been parked near the targets. The other team is trying to find out whether two or four suicide bombers had carried out the attacks.
Meanwhile, a source said that law-enforcement agencies had arrested four suspects in Faisalabad in connection with the Lahore terrorist attack on the FIA building.
He said the owner of one of the pick-ups used in the bombings was among the arrested.
The man, identified as Imtiaz Ahmed, was taken into custody from the Samundri Road where he had his transport business.
Earlier, funeral prayers for 15 FIA officials were held the Police Lines.
Governor Khalid Maqbool, Caretaker Chief Minister Ijaz Nisar, FIA Director-General Tariq Pervaiz, IGP Azhar Nadeem and CCPO Malik Iqbal attended the prayers.
The government has announced Rs500,000 compensation for each of the FIA victims and jobs for their kin.