KARACHI, June 12: Police on Saturday registered a case against the unidentified persons, involved in attack on an army convoy, carrying the Karachi corps commander on Thursday.

A senior police official, requesting anonymity, told Dawn that the police had registered an FIR (165/2004) against unknown terrorists.

He said that the FIR was registered under sections 302/324/353/34 and 120-B of the PPC, section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and 3/4 of the Explosive Act.Section 120-B reads: "Criminal Conspiracy: To commit an offence punishable with death or rigorous imprisonment for life or for a term of two years or upward."

The army convoy, carrying Karachi corps commander Lt Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat, came under heavy fire near the Clifton Bridge on Thursday morning, killing seven soldiers, three policemen and a passerby. The heavy firing was followed by a bomb explosion, while another bomb, detected on the spot, was defused.

Official sources involved in the investigation said that a number of suspects were rounded up from different localities in the city, adding that some people were also picked up from Joharabad in Federal B Area, during a night raid, where the law enforcers had to face armed resistance during the operation. However, the suspects were arrested and were taken to an undisclosed location. Their names could not be ascertained immediately.

The police, the sources claimed, picked up many suspects from Orangi Town, North Karachi, Mehmoodabad, Akhtar Colony, Lyari, and other areas. "We are screening them and looking for any tip that may lead us to the culprits," an official said.

Sources said that some empties of a light machinegun were found from the van used in the attack and was, later in the day, found abandoned in Defence View Phase-II. The empties were found to be made in tribal areas of the NWFP, which indicated involvement of jihadi outfits in the attack, the sources added.

They said that the LMG was fixed in the rear of the van and the bullets were fired from inside the vehicle, due to which the rear screen of the van was smashed.

A sub-machine gun was also found in the abandoned van, which was an official one, the sources said and added that the SMG was in possession of one of the three policemen, who died during the attack.

It was surprising that it was taken away by the assailants, who later left it in the van, probably, because it was splattered with blood, they said.

Sources said that intelligence agencies were also investigating into the incident and assisting police to find a clue to the culprits.