Investigators tracing network behind recent suicide bombing

PESHAWAR: Police and the Counter-Terrorism Department are investigating to find more about the network that carried out a suicide attack on a police party in the provincial capital over a week ago, The News learnt.

“The bomber seems to be a foreigner who was having both Pakistani and Afghan fake ID cards. He could not speak Pashto or Urdu when intercepted by the police party,” said a source.

He added that the investigation teams were finding out where he spent time before he carried out the suicide attack.

A few arrests were made in Peshawar as well as Karak during the probe. The held suspects also included the person who forged documents for the bomber.

A source said the cops had arrested one alleged suicide bomber a day before the blast. Two policemen, including sub-inspector Laiq Zada and constable Alamzeb were martyred and a few others were wounded when the suicide bomber detonated explosives around his vest on Ring Road near Grand Trunk Road on May 11. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State (IS KP) on its social media.

The officials believed the target of the bomber was a major rally of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam at some distance, but he detonated explosives around his body when he realised he could not reach there after held by the cops.

JUIF organized a major ‘Shuhada-e-Ghaza and Difa-e-Pakistan’ rally on the Ring Road in the provincial capital on last Sunday evening, where its chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and many other senior leaders addressed the workers.

Investigators said the two policemen sacrificed their lives but saved scores of lives by stopping the bomber ahead of the venue of the rally.