December 18, 2006	Monday	Ziqa'ad 26, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 17: The interior ministry on Sunday issued what it called findings of the inquiry report of joint investigation committee on throwing of some explosive material in front of the office of NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani on December 5, claiming that the Intelligence Bureau was not involved in the incident.

However, the NWFP chief minister in his recent statement had claimed that the investigation team had confirmed the involvement of IB's naib qasid Muhammad Tufail and its deputy director in the case.

When contacted, an interior ministry official claimed that the ministry had not made any change in the findings of the report issued to the media.

"The inquiry committee presented its report to the interior ministry as it was liable to do so," he said. The federal government noticed that the NWFP government was wilfully and wrongfully twisting the facts of the incident.

The ministry is of the view that it was more deplorable as the recent response from the NWFP government had come after the release of the report by the committee which was constituted by the provincial government with the concurrence of the federal government.

The committee members include: Muhammad Sharif Virk, joint director-general, IB Islamabad; Tariq Khosa, additional director-general FIA, Islamabad; Zulfiqar Ahmad Cheema, DIG police, Hazara Region, Abbottabad; and Malik Muhammad Saad, DIG operations/commandant, Frontier Police, Peshawar.

According to the interior ministry, the committee in its findings had categorically ruled out any mala fide on the part of the IB.

It said the committee in its findings concluded: “It was an individual act of a naib qasid of the IB without any malicious intention as the explosive stick was without any fuse or detonator and that he threw it in the manhole during broad daylight and that too in full view of the police constables standing nearby on duty.”

The ministry claimed that the committee had ruled out any chance of sabotage or act of terrorism and recommended the removal of section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act, which was added to the FIR as an afterthought to enhance the gravity of the offence.

It said that the committee further concluded that the matter was blown out of proportion without professionally inquiring or investigating the case.