F.P. Report
PESHAWAR: The Counter Terrorism Department special investigation team on Saturday took into custody two suspected people linked to the Peshawar imambargah suicide blast while Namaz-i-Janaza of the martyred was offered. Citizens in Parachinar staged a protest to condemn the blast as 11 of the victims were belonged to the area.
The police and CTD probe team were jointly investigating Friday’s huge suicide blast at the Shia mosque in which 57 worshippers were martyred and nearly 200 sustained injuries. They recorded the statements of the injured. The law enforcers arrested two people on suspicion. According to the initial investigation, the attacker first opened fire on a police official using 9MM pistol and the probe team recovered seven shells of bullets from the crime scene.
The probe team revealed that the suicide jacket was stuffed with a large quantity of ball bearings. They said that they would run blood test on the body parts recovered from the blast scene to ascertain their identification. So far, the police could not identify eight bodies martyred in the blast. According to the investigation, approximately 5-6kg explosives were used in the explosion.
The law enforcers have completed the sketches of the suicide bomber and his two facilitators who came there in a rickshaw from the Kohati area. The terrorists stopped their rickshaw at a distance from the Kucha Risaldar and reached the imambargah on foot. Though the Peshawar police initially said that two suicide bombers were involved in the attack but now the investigation had revealed that the number of attackers was three.
Anyhow, the Peshawar Police have now started searching for the rickshaw driver. The city of Peshawar emerged shaken and jolted a day after the carnage. The atmosphere was somber. The Namaz-i-Janaza of 13 martyrs was held today at Kohati Gate. A large number of people participated in the funeral prayers.
On this occasion, a huge number of policemen were deputed at the funeral prayers site to provide security to the participants. However, the funeral prayers of 18 martyrs were held Friday night. The funeral prayers of the two martyred policemen were also offered on Friday night in which Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and his ministers along with IGP Muazzam Jah Insari and senior police officers participated. Of the 196 injured, 45, some of them critical, were now still under treatment at the Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital. An LRH spokesman informed the media that the wounded were being provided the best medical facilities in different wards of the hospital.
He maintained that the injured were given emergency treatment despite rush in the hospital which was commendable. IS claims responsibility Meanwhile, the Islamic State group claimed the suicide bombing. Friday, an Islamic State fighter succeeded in assaulting a Shiite mosque in Peshawar,” the transnational jihadist group said on its Amaq propaganda site. Citizens in Parachinar stage protest The number of Peshawar martyrs who belonged to Parachinar reached 11. The Parachinar administration on Saturday closed all business and educational institutions in the city to mourn their martyrdom.
The aggrieved citizens took the bodies of the blast victims to the Parachina Press Club and staged a protest there condemning the blast. On the other hand, SHO Waris Khan of Khan Razzaq police station sent a letter to the CTD for registering a case under murder, attempt to murder and terrorism clauses.
The yesterday powerful suicide blast in a mosque at Kocha Risaldar has grieved Peshawarties coming to the residences of victims and are offering Fateha for eternal peace of the departed souls.
People of every walks of life including relatives and well wishers are coming to the residences of the blast victims at Qissa Khwani and Kocha Risaldar to express their deep condolences and solidarity with the bereaved families and are offering Fateha. An atmosphere of grief and sorrow is prevailed in Qissa Khwani and Kocha Risaldar where 57 worshipers were killed and nearly 200 injured in a deadly suicide attack during Friday congregation inside a mosque.
Funeral prayers of the victims including constable Jamil Khan were held in Peshawar and their native areas. The people, civil society and politicians strongly condemned the suicide attack on peaceful worshipers and demanded arrest of the perpetrators.
Chief Minister KP, Mahmood Khan, Higher Education Minister Kamran Bangash and Assistant to Chief Minister for Information, Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif visited Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar and inquired after health of injured. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government has constituted a joint investigation team to probe the deadly attack. Senior officials of Counter Terrorism Department, Special Branch, Bomb Disposal Squad and Local Police are members of the investigation team The team has collected evidences from site of the explosion and started recorded statements of eye witnesses besides expanded circles of investigation.
