March 17, 2008	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 8, 1429

LAHORE, March 16: At least 200 kilogram explosive material was used in the blast at the Federal Investigation Agency’s provincial headquarters, a senior investigator informed Dawn on Sunday.

Initially, it was conjectured that the explosive material used in the blast weighed between 50 and 70 kg. Twenty-eight people, including FIA officials and some children, were killed in last Tuesday’s suicide attacks on the agency building on Temple Road and an advertising agency in Model Town. The explosives used in Model Town blast are said to weigh between 30 and 50 kg.The investigator said the magnitude of destruction at the FIA building showed that the explosive material was not less than 200kg, adding that the blast had a similarity with the one in Kenya in 1998 in which the US embassy was targeted.

He said only a foot of the suicide bomber had been found several meters away from the site of the blast (at the FIA building) and sent for DNA test. He refuted the earlier report that two suicide bombers were involved in the attack. The DNA result is likely to be received next week.

Another investigator said the cameras installed at the entrance of the FIA building had captured the images of the mini-truck, loaded with huge explosives, forcing its entry after smashing a constable standing guard and it would help a lot in reaching the culprits. “Had there been no video recording of the vehicle used in the blast, it would have been very difficult to ascertain its identity,” he added.

It is pertinent to mention that the mini-truck used in the FIA blast was originally a car and it had been obtained under the Yellow Cab scheme.

“It is believed that the finest quality of the explosive material (C-4) had been used in the FIA blast, however, forensic report will confirm it besides further revealing the use of other explosive material,” he said.

He claimed that such types of explosives could be prepared ‘locally’. “We had recently arrested a few people in Punjab from whom different types of explosives were recovered, lending credence to the reports that almost all types of explosives are now being made here,” claimed the investigator.

Two teams of Lahore police, one of the FIA’s Special Investigation Group and a special team, comprising officials of different departments of law-enforcement agencies, are probing the blasts.

A source informed Dawn that there had been no coordination among them (the teams) and each of them was conducting its ‘own probe’. Even a US team, comprising forensic and technical experts, arrived here to take part in the probe and none of the local teams was willing to admit that it had ‘extended cooperation’ to it.

The investigation teams said the US fact finders had come here on the invitation of ‘someone else’.

“Primarily the magnitude of the blast at the FIA building has forced the government to seek help from the US in the probe so that concrete evidence against the people involved can be obtained and they can be brought to the book. The US help may be useful also to take precautionary measures to check such incidents in future,” the source added.