KARACHI, Oct 22: The top police official heading the team investigating the Oct 18 midnight carnage is going to be replaced following the lack of confidence shown by the Pakistan People’s Party in him, it emerged on Monday.

As many as 140 people were killed and hundreds others injured when two bombs exploded near the specially-designed vehicle carrying Benazir Bhutto.

A senior police official told Dawn on the condition of anonymity that DIG (Investigation) Manzoor Mughal would either be replaced by DIG CID Saud Ahmed Mirza or DIG Sardar Abdul Majeed Dasti, who has reported to the Central Police Office and is awaiting posting. Sources said DIG Majeed was also on the list of police officials which the PPP has passed on to the government for the probe.

Sources said a notification to this effect was likely to be issued in a day or two. In the present situation when the PPP has already expressed doubt over the officer heading the investigation team, it would be useless to go ahead with the investigation, the source said.

Officials said the composition of the rest of the investigation team comprising SP (Investigation, East) Dr Amir Shaikh, SP (Investigation, South) Niaz Ahmed Khosa, SP of the Anti-Violent Crime Unit Farooq Awan, and CID SP Raja Umar Khattab may remain the same. However, there are chances that one or two officers might be added to the present panel of investigators, they added.

A PPP spokesperson on Sunday claimed that the only reason the attackers were successful in penetrating the security cordon was that the streetlights on Sharea Faisal had been switched off. The party had requested the authorities to take DIG Manzoor Mughal out of the investigation team, he said.

DIG Mughal, he alleged, was present when Asif Ali Zardari was almost killed under police torture in 1999 and was saved only by the intervention of courts, media, diplomatic community and the then governor, the spokesman added.

When Dawn contacted DIG Investigation Manzoor Mughal for his version over the PPP statement against him, he refuted the PPP charges saying that in fact he had refused to act on the orders against Asif Ali Zardari passed on from the higher-ups at that time and faced the wrath of the then government.

Meanwhile, the government has rejected the PPP’s demand that help from the international experts having experience in investigating terrorist attacks be sought. On Sunday, Ms Bhutto had called for assistance of the international experts into the Oct 18 double bomb attacks.