Video shows Sehwan attacker went past security at shrine’s entrance: IGP

AD Khowaja describes suspect an Afghan national;

says he was 99 percent likely to be the actual attacker

KARACHI: As the Sindh Police issued on Sunday a video that purportedly shows the Sehwan attacker easing through a security checkpoint at the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar's shrine last week, the chief of the provincial police force described the suspect as an Afghan national and said he was “99 percent” likely to be the actual attacker.

Sindh IGP A D Khowaja’s statement comes as the death toll from the Sehwan suicide attack – said to be the deadliest militant attack in the country in the past two years – has risen to 88 with hundreds more injured still under treatment.

Speaking to the media in Karachi on Sunday, IGP Khowaja said the man seen in the CCTV footage was “99 percent” the suicide bomber, stating that the suspect noticed the police officer deployed at the gate and went the other way.

The IGP said the attacker was also suspected of involvement in the Shikarpur and Jacobabad blasts. He added that the involvement of a person identified as Hafeez Brohi could not be ruled out, stating that the person in question had a terrorist network in Sindh. The IGP added that the crowd size at the shrine had made it difficult to identify the suicide bomber, adding that investigations were under way and once completed, the law enforcers would be able to arrest the culprits and facilitators.

Khowaja said the police had arrested one man in connection with the Sehwan carnage in Johi, Dadu. The suspected facilitator has been shifted to an undisclosed location for further investigation. On Friday, the Sehwan police lodged a case against one suicide bomber and three facilitators involved in the Feb 16 suicide bombing in which the accused remained unidentified.

The FIR was lodged for crime no16/2017 under sections 302, 353, 324, 295, 120/B, 440, 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code 3/4 of the Explosive Substance Act and 6/7 of the Anti Terrorism Act.