July 16, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 5, 1423

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MANSEHRA, July 15: The law enforcement agencies have extended the sphere of investigation into the July 13 attack on the European tourists near the Ashoka relics, to the Hazara division and taken into custody more than 150 suspects.

Those arrested for interrogation belong to both factions of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, banned Jihadi outfits and Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan, as well as dozens of Afghan refugees.

Hundreds of activists and local leaders of the religious parties and the banned Jihadi organizations have gone underground to escape the arrest.

The Mansehra police have constituted four teams for conducting raids to nab the suspects.

Some of the detainees were set free after preliminary interrogation on Sunday night.

Those rounded up include Maulana Nazir Ahmad, the district president of the defunct Sipah-i-Sahaba, his son Mohammad Saeed, a professor of Arabic at Government Post-graduate College of Mansehra, Qari Humayun and his son Mohammad Tahir, Mohammad Naeem and Ghulam Mustafa. They all belong to the banned SSP.

Some of the other detainees were identified as Maulana Sultanul Abideen (JUI), Maulana Qasim Shah, Haji Mohammad Haroon, Munshi Nawab Khan, Zubair Swati, Mohammad Farid, Tariq Aziz, Mohammad Samandar, Nazir Khan, Mohammad Shahid and Rabnawaz.

Sources privy to the investigation agencies told this correspondent that there was evidence of connection between some religious extremists and the terrorists involved in the attack.

Mohammad Naeem, an activist of the defunct Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan, was picked up by an agency at Mansehra a few weeks ago and set free after being interrogated for some days in the Waris Khan police station police of Rawalpindi. He has been re-arrested by the local police.

The police were looking for Mohammad Nasim, the tourist guide of the Flashman’s Hotel in Rawalpindi, who was to accompany the tourists on the day of the occurrence but did not come along. A senior police officer has been sent to Rawalpindi for tracing Nasim.

An official of the German embassy on Monday visited Mansehra and met the senior superintendent of police to learn about the progress in the investigation.

Meanwhile, local leaders of the religious parties have reacted sharply to the arrest of their party workers and the activists of the banned Jihadi outfits.

A delegation headed by the district Amir of the JUI, Maulana Syed Hidayatullah Shah, met Syed Ahsan Mahboob, the SSP of Mansehra, and expressed it’s concern over the large-scale arrests.

The delegation included Maulana Qazi Rafiqueur Rehman, Abdul Qayum Khattak of the JUI (Sami), Maulana Mufti Viqarul Haq Osmani, Qazi Habibur Rehman and others.

The SSP assured the delegation that justice would be done and those found innocent would be set free.

HAND-GRENADE: A bomb disposal squad of the NWFP police has found a pin and a lever of a locally-made hand grenade and a dynamite near the relics of Ashoka in Mansehra town, where 13 people, nine of them foreign tourists, were wounded in a terrorist attack.

The pin and lever of the hand grenade and the dynamite were recovered by a team comprising high-ranking police officials. The NWFP IGP Saeed Khan, DIG Hazara range Rao Hasim, SSP Mansehra Syed Ahsan Mahboob, and director IB Bukhtiar Khan on Saturday inspected the crime scene.

Meanwhile, the local police rounded up dozens of activists of banned Jehadi outfits, defunct Sepah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and Afghan refugees for interrogation.

Later, at a press briefing, the IGP said that both of the devices used in the attack were locally-made and were of low intensity. He said that the two devices were hurled on the tourists from a considerable distance, which exploded in the air, causing minor injuries to the tourists and little damage to the relics.

The IGP informed newsmen that the devices used in the attack, according to experts, were those commonly used by the locals for fishing purpose and for blasting of rocks. He said that no eyewitnesses had so far come forward to record statements. He said that the police had located the place from where the devices were hurled on the tourists.