KARACHI, Oct 17: Police on Thursday picked up six activists of a religious group for their suspected involvement in Wednesday’s parcel bomb explosions.

The police also questioned a number of others, arrested in the past and serving terms in the Central Prison and Landhi Jail.

Two more parcels bombs similar to those exploded on Wednesday in Tughlaq House, the DIG operations’ office and the CID office, Civil Lines, were handed over to the police investigation branch on Thursday.

According to the police, these parcels had been returned to the Shaheen Express (not Shaheen Courier Service) after they remained undelivered to the addressees — Allama Hassan Turabi and Nazimabad DSP Muhammad Aslam Khan. These parcels were mailed through the post offices in Federal B. Area and New Town.

The explosive devices in the parcels were neutralized at the Hill Park by bomb disposal experts of PNS Himaliya on the request of the police.

Well-placed sources said the police had accelerated their operation against a banned religious group, and raided various places. They picked up at least six people — three in Orangi Town, two in New Karachi and one in Nazimabad.

The banned Lashkar-i-Jhangavi had claimed responsibility for the three Wednesday explosions, injuring eight policemen and an employee of the Shaheen Express.

However, the SSP for investigation, Manzoor Mughal, denied the arrest of the religious activists. “It is not to my knowledge whether any other police team has picked up any religious activist,” he said.

“We have with us seven people of the postal services and they are associated with the investigation process.”

Mr Mughal further said: “We have sent various teams to different prisons to interrogate the under-trial and condemned prisoners affiliated with the banned religious organizations. Some police teams have questioned the prisoners but so far we have not got any substantial clue to the suspects.”

Another senior police official said: “The electronic mail sent to newspaper offices claiming the responsibility of the parcel bombs appeared to be authentic.”

He said: “We have got the copy of the e-mail and are assessing its route to identity the Internet Service Provider (ISP) through which the e-mail was sent. It may help us locate the place from where the e-mail was sent.”

A police official on condition of anonymity told Dawn that the police went to a number of shops selling diaries. The shopkeepers were questioned whether they sold diaries in bulk to any person. “We want to collect the description of the persons who had purchased the diaries. However, we have not got any success in this respect,” he added.

Three sketches of the suspects, who mailed these devices, have been prepared with the help of employees of the postal service. Two sketches were identical and one was different, which indicated two men had posted the parcels containing explosives, the sources said.

Police officials said the identical sketches were prepared with the help of Afaq, a night time post master at the Federal B. Area Post Office, and Mohammad Sadruddin, a night time head post master, New Town Post Office. They helped prepare the sketches at separate timings. However, the third one was unlike the earlier two, which was prepared with the help of Shakir Mumtaz, a clerk at the General Post Office, Saddar.

Sources said the police had picked up seven officials of Pakistan Post Office and four officials of the Shaheen Express soon after the parcel bomb explosions. They were questioned by the investigators and not allowed to go home.