KARACHI, April 19: The explosive used in the Nishtar Park bombing was �C4�, a type used earlier in the abortive attempt to blow up President Pervez Musharraf�s convoy in Rawalpindi on December 14, 2003.
This was stated by the investigators of the Nishtar Park bomb blast. They said that the ballistics laboratory test had established that the highly explosive C4 type material, primarily used by military forces in the world, and now also by Al Qaeda operatives, was used in the April 11 suicide bombing.
In Pakistan, C4 was used in a few incidents, including the attack on the president�s convoy in which the bomb was planted beneath the Chichi Jhanda Bridge in Rawalpindi. The bomb did not explode as the president�s motorcade was equipped with jamming devices. However, it went off as soon as the motorcade crossed the bridge, according to the investigators.
The same type of the explosive was used in the car-bomb blast near the US consulate in Karachi on March 2. Four people, including a US diplomat, were killed in the blast. Another example of C4 use was the suicide bombing at Madinatul Ilm, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, on May 31, 2005. The investigators said that C4 type of explosive was, however, used with mixing of nitrate, sulphur, or fertilizer in some cases to ignite fire.
Investigators said that pellets used in the bomb had been used in the suicide bombings at various places in the past. The modus ope***** of the attack in Nishtar Park religious gathering was identical to the suicide attacks at the Ashura procession in Hangu�s main Bazaar on February 9, 2006, the annual religious gathering at Bari Imam shrine on May 28, 2005 and the Madinatul Ilm Imambargah in Karachi on May 31, 2005.
However, the investigators said, the identity of the suicide bomber in the Nishtar Park case could not be established as yet. Efforts were being made in this direction as a team of doctors had reconstituted the severed head of the suspected bomber. The head was collected from the scene of the blast.
Intelligence agencies, on the directives of the authorities in Islamabad, were probing into the case, they said.
A senior investigator said: �We have found some clues that indicated involvement of a sectarian group in the blast, but it would be premature to pinpoint any group or individual at this stage.�
Meanwhile, Federal Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah, along with the Director General of FIA, Tariq Pervez, DIG Investigation-I Manzoor Mughal, DIG Investigation-II Mir Zubair Mehmood, Director Special Investigation Group (SIG) Ashraf Zubair, SP CID Operations Raja Umer Khattab and other senior officials visited the scene of the blast at Nishtar Park on Wednesday morning and inspected the place. DIG Mughal briefed the federal secretary and members of the joint investigation team about the suicide attack and the findings of the investigations made so far.
Later, Syed Kamal Shah held a meeting on law and order at the Central Police Office (CPO) and emphasised on progress in the blast investigation process. The meeting was attended by IG Sindh Jahangir Mirza, CCPO Niaz Siddiki, DG Nadra, Sindh, Brig Abid Haider Kazmi and other senior officials.
Sources who attended the meeting said that it reviewed the process of the investigation in the Nishtar Park bombing and was told that a splinter group of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi was involved in the attack on Maulana Saleem Qadri, the founder chief of the Sunni Tehrik who had been shot dead a few years back. The meeting was told that the assailants belonged to the Deobandi sect whereas the victim belonged to Barelvi sect.
The meeting was informed that the second deadly incident had taken place at Bara, in the NWFP, on January 16 this year. In that incident, a clash between Barelvi and Deobandi sects had left 25 people of Deobandi sect dead. The meeting was told that this aspect was being reviewed as the Nishtar Park bombing could be a retort to the Bara incident
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