KARACHI: Police officers investigating the bomb attack on former SHO of Mauripur Shafiq Tanoli in the old Sabzimandi area on Friday evening were perplexed as there were divergent views as to whether it was a suicide attack or not.

“Confusion and uncertainty persisted as to whether it was a suicide attack on the police officer, which killed two civilians and wounded 25 others, including four policemen,” said DIG-East Munir Ahmad Shaikh.

Quoting the statement of the wounded sub-inspector, Shafiq Tanoli, the DIG said he (Tanoli) saw a bike-rider hit his vehicle and the explosion occurred. The former SHO told the investigators that he could identify the attacker if presented before him.

“There may not be a suicide jacket but a preliminary probe suggested that it was a suicide attack on the officer,” said SSP-East Syed Pir Mohammed Shah. Therefore, profiling of the two dead persons and all injured persons had been carried out to find any clue to the identity of the attacker. He said certain wounded persons were also interrogated.

However, the officer-in-charge of the anti-terrorism cell of the CID police, Raja Umer Khattab, did not support the views.

“The explosion could not take place by merely hitting the vehicle of the police officer with the bike and if it had been a suicide attack, the attacker could not have survived as the bike had turned into pieces,” said Raja Khattab, who had extensively covered the bomb blasts in the city for years.

He said it might be the case that the attacker left the bike there as it was a highly congested locality where the speed of the vehicle almost became zero and fled and in such case, he must have been wounded owing to the impact of the blast.

Raja said it was a four to five kilogram bomb attached to the bike, which was detonated with a remote control.

About the possible perpetrators of the crime, DIG-East Munir Ahmad Shaikh said the investigators were focusing on involvement of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

DIG-West Javed Alam Odho, in whose area Shafiq Tanoli had remained SHO of Maripur, also said that the modus operandi suggested the involvement of TTP militants in the attack. Odho explained that Tanoli, recently transferred to the police headquarters, had killed suspected militants in alleged encounters when he was the Maripur SHO.

Raja Khattab also expressed identical views.

“Bike blasts have been used in Karachi by the militants since 2009,” he said.

He said the old Sabzimandi blast was different from other bike blasts from one perspective namely nuts were used in the improvised explosive device attack instead of pellets.

Raja said previously only two or three IED attacks had taken place in Karachi in which nuts were used. Two of them had taken place in Lyari including one during the last general election campaign. “In those both bike blasts, the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi was suspected to be involved,” said the head of the CID police’s anti-terrorism wing.