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Sindh police on Sunday released a video allegedly showing the Sehwan attacker bypassing a security check at the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine last week.
The suicide attack targeting the shrine on Thursday killed at least 88 people and injured hundreds others. It is one among a deadly series of attacks carried out by militants in recent weeks.
Inspector General Police Sindh A.D. Khawaja while addressing a press conference said the man shown in the CCTV footage is "99 per cent" the suicide bomber. He described the man as an Afghan national, saying that the 'attacker' saw the police officer at the gate and decided to go the other way.
The attacker is suspected of involvement in the Shikarpur and Jacobabad blasts, the IGP said, adding that the involvement of a man named Hafeez Brohi in the Sehwan attack could not be ruled out, as he had a terrorist network in Sindh.
The IGP said that police have arrested one man in connection to the Sehwan carnage in Johi, a town in Sindh's Dadu district. The suspected facilitator has been shifted to an undisclosed location for further investigation, he added.
The Sindh government will have the case investigated through Sindh police’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), as was done in suicide bombings in Jacobabad during Ashura and at Shikarpur’s shrine, and then again last year in Shikarpur on the second day of Eidul Azha.
Sehwan police had lodged a case on Friday against one suicide bomber and three facilitators involved in the Feb 16 suicide bombing at the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar. The accused remained unidentified.
The First Information Report for the case was lodged for crime no 16/2017 under Sections 302, 353, 324, 295, 120/B, 440, 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code, 3/4 of the Explosive Substance Act and 6/7 of the Anti Terrorism Act.
A police source confirmed that an unspecified number of suspects were detained during raids at different places in Sehwan.
The shrine has now been opened for the general public.
Read more
Avenging terror: The efficacy of Pakistan's options
Staying the course after Sehwan
Political administration asks people to vacate Pak-Afghan border areas in Khyber Agency
Taliban entered Pakistan as migrants on condition they would disavow militancy: Aizaz Chaudhry
If terrorists burst in, where is the nearest exit I can push my brother towards?
How shrines helped indigenise Islam and Christianity in South Asia
On DawnNews
Comments (69) Closed
Feb 19, 2017 01:44pm
We all will forget this incident soon
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Feb 19, 2017 01:58pm
nation is waiting for punishment of criminals involved , only claiming are useless.
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Feb 19, 2017 02:03pm
Good.
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Feb 19, 2017 02:08pm
Thats all what we can do. And then we forget.
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Feb 19, 2017 02:11pm
Wow, what a security check this was. One policeman and hundreds of people going through. It is inevitable that perpetrators will bypass easily.
Please do not conduct PSL in Lahore if we're going to rely on such a security check for the safety of players and people.
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Feb 19, 2017 02:10pm
This shows ignorance of security personals.
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Feb 19, 2017 02:14pm
People went to this place to have their problems solved and......
What did we learn from this incident?
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Feb 19, 2017 02:45pm
How can the security establishment allow the perpetrator to carry-out suicide attacks again and again? Inefficient.
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Feb 19, 2017 02:47pm
Keep on posting different pictures taken by CCTV . Damage has already been done . This should have been avoided if nation were smart and honest enough .
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Feb 19, 2017 03:08pm
Wow, are people blaming the poor police officer? Don't blame the police officer, blame the authorities and organisers. Why were walk through gates and better screening not installed?
It's wholly unfair to target one poor police officer for this tragedy, just put yourself in HIS shoes right now, what dark place must he be in mentally and emotionally?
Support your police!
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Feb 19, 2017 03:22pm
If only that policeman was vigilant enough, things could have been different! Secondly for such a huge rush, one policeman is too little!
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Feb 19, 2017 03:40pm
are we doing something against the police office who didn't performed his duty... We will not be able to achieve peace if we will not perform our duties as it should be...
starting from top to bottom...
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Feb 19, 2017 03:43pm
Looks like there was power-outage, at the time when the culprit sneaked through the security ring.
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Feb 19, 2017 03:49pm
The video clearly shows the inadequate security arrangement. If this is the way how security checks are conducted then who is to be blamed. One guard with metal detector in such a haphazard condition cannot keep the danger away. The layman's rule is one person at a time, here we see a group of peoples entering together, what can a lone security person do. This terrorist must have passed 10 times before to see the security flaw before the final appearence.
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Feb 19, 2017 04:13pm
@Abdulla Hussain: OMG. Correction the police guard is without a metal detector, moreover he can be seen taking out mobile phone from his pocket & attempting to read some message. This is absolutely no security check.
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Feb 19, 2017 04:24pm
What we can expect from a poor policeman? He has two eyes and two hands.
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Feb 19, 2017 04:34pm
Prosecute the guilty and punish them but we must always be careful not to penalize the innocent. Our police and judiciary need urgent reform if we are to face all these challenges.
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Feb 19, 2017 04:45pm
The security personnel do not have proper training and this is what we see in the video. Now this incident is over and security agencies waiting for another calamity to be happened somewhere else to show such videos.
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Feb 19, 2017 05:00pm
Its really very sad, it will happen again and again, till you hire people on real merit. What you expect from these corrupt system.
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Feb 19, 2017 05:11pm
@Zeeshan And this is what we can do.
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Feb 19, 2017 05:20pm
Showing this video doesn't absolve the govt or the armed forces from their responsibility....don't blame the security guard for your incompetencies
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Feb 19, 2017 05:44pm
Sehwan attacker bypassed security check in CCTV footage: police..Wonder what the security forces where doing there if it is so easy to bypass the check point..I guess.... the people have to be more vigilant than our security forces...
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Feb 19, 2017 06:12pm
Why they are saying 99% and not 100%?
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Feb 19, 2017 06:16pm
To be honest no one has got any clue what is happening in this country.
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Feb 19, 2017 06:19pm
Hundreds of police protect one (so called vip) and thousands of common people just have a single inefficient policeman. Sindh police known for corruption and inefficiency
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Feb 19, 2017 06:26pm
Judging from the video, the suspect may had by passed owing to the fact,many others must had too,that there was a lone person assigned to carry out the so-called security check !
What is worth noting importantly is that the suspect is dressed in a open waist court and couldn't have possibly concealed a the suicide jacket laden with explosives !
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Feb 19, 2017 06:30pm
Not just this guy, almost everyone bypassed the security as can be seen in the video.
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Feb 19, 2017 06:32pm
Terrorism incidents should be investigated by a federal agency like the FBI in the US as these terrorist networks transcend provincial and national boundaries.
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Feb 19, 2017 06:37pm
The man in picture clearly appears to be a middle aged bespectacled man not wearing any suicide belt. He is not of normal suicide bombers' description who are almost invariably in their teens.
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Feb 19, 2017 06:59pm
Should he be punished for not going through security checks?
He's already dead.
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Feb 19, 2017 07:08pm
@Reality: NOTHING
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Feb 19, 2017 07:09pm
@javeed
As Punjab CM said Ban this kind of functions.
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Feb 19, 2017 07:12pm
We have a system in Pakistan which has been broken by successive governments of corrupt and criminal politicians. This alleged facilitator will eventually produce a letter of innocence, just like a Qatari letter, and will be let off.
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Feb 19, 2017 07:30pm
This is a terrible system of checking. The policeman would surely be concerned that if he identifies a suicide jacket, the khudkush could detonate his jacket right there where he is and cause a large number of casualities. There has to be a system where the passage is narrow enough so that each person is forced to be checked individually.
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Feb 19, 2017 07:48pm
CCTV is not serving much purpose. We do not learn from previous mistakes. No lessons learned.
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Feb 19, 2017 08:19pm
@nuzhat shireen exactly.
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Feb 19, 2017 08:19pm
@M. Emad what's good? someone bypassing a security check?? lol
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Feb 19, 2017 08:20pm
@Usman yes police officer should be punished because he was doing what he was trained for and reward the non existant system and corrupt families at the top of the country. Put blame on someone who dread for his family n lives daily because he lives in a country run by corrupts
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Feb 19, 2017 08:27pm
@Adil Jadoon who do you expect to reform?
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Feb 19, 2017 08:43pm
i thought the initial reports were that the attacker was dressed as a woman..clearly that's not the case??
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Feb 19, 2017 08:48pm
The policeman was casual in his duty. Even if there is no rush, this person would not have arrested, because the policeman's causal attitude towards duty. It is need less to say for all major accidents either related to quality, safety or security, underlying causes are human behaviour. These behaviour is at the bottom of the pyramid. Either behaviour needs to be corrected or some other full proof system should be in place without human intervention.
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Feb 19, 2017 08:56pm
He seems to be the only person wearing a jacket among the throng. On the other hand, jacket is open at the front and seems to be pretty thin. How could he be carrying such a lethal amount of explosive in that garment that it can kill 88 and injure over 200? Something doesn't add up. Am more inclined to think that it was perhaps a woman wearing a burqa that was used as an assassin.
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Feb 19, 2017 08:58pm
The policeman looks suspicious
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Feb 19, 2017 09:08pm
Now all the blame lies with lonely police constable who had to check thousands of people getting into shrine......lets assume he had checked that suicide bomber there and stopped him what could have happened the bomber would have blown himself there right??? you can never stop a bomber from blowing himself when has entered the city...so please don't make that lonely constable a scapegoat!!!!
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Feb 19, 2017 09:21pm
One man can only do so much. They were coming like one person per second. How many can one guy frisk. The queue. The heckling. The jostling.
Simply, it's a nip in the bud business
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Feb 19, 2017 10:00pm
He didn't bi-pass anything - security checkpoint was essentially worthless.
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Feb 19, 2017 10:04pm
Are you complaining now ?
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Feb 19, 2017 10:05pm
Mostly, the security personnels don't check the properly even in areas which are under threat.
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Feb 19, 2017 10:04pm
Mostly, the security personnels don't check the properly even in areas which are under threat.
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Feb 19, 2017 10:28pm
Not enough security by looking at the footage. Huge number of people and one police man. He is just not able to handle this rush. Needs revamping of security's apparatus
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Feb 19, 2017 10:35pm
"He described the man as an Afghan national, saying that the 'attacker' saw the police officer at the gate and decided to go the other way."
This is a ridiculous statement. Does police think the attacker will not try to bypass or avoid checking. They should have been prepared to this.
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Feb 20, 2017 12:30am
What about Rangers in interior Sindh?.
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Feb 20, 2017 02:11am
@s: PSL final will surely be held in Lahore. We need to defeat terrorists and those who do not want international cricket to return to Pakistan
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Feb 20, 2017 04:29am
I fail to understand in spite of a spate of suicide bombings over the year Pakistan does not introduce the practice of frisking people who come inside a shrine etc. It is as simple as asking a person to spread out their arms then running your hands on the entire length of their body. If they are wearing a suicide belt it would be hard to miss with a search like that. It is common practice all over the world in such instances. FRISK THEM.
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Feb 20, 2017 05:25am
most of you sitting overseas and blaming police and others.
come back and fix this yourself
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Feb 20, 2017 05:31am
For the vedio you see one poor police man checking 100 of people flowing like river,our security ministry has no brain, in this type of flow we need more than one poor police man to check flow of river
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Feb 20, 2017 06:55am
Sorry for the death of all these innocent worshipers. Very very sad. My condolence to the family members who lost their life.
It is not the loss of 88 people who died, it is 88 families those will be effected.
Well, wait til CPEC is completed. Pakistan will be a developed and the richest country in the world. Then they can hire the best security from China, the only all weather friend.
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Feb 20, 2017 08:34am
What? You're figuring out now that he bypassed security check? Excellent sleuthing. All those lives lost were not in vain after all.
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Feb 20, 2017 11:42am
what can that ONE police do for literally 100s of people crossing in ? with no metal detector gates or even metal detector stick
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Feb 20, 2017 11:50am
@maqsood YOU GOT IT NAILED DOWN.
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Feb 20, 2017 11:59am
what is the use of security camera if it was not used for its purpose ? clearly this man's strange behavior for entering is seen and someone should have been watching the camera and alerting someone to pull him aside.
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Feb 20, 2017 12:56pm
stories only that is what we get . as a common man i will like to know who has done it,how and will he and his helpers be named and punished.
i APSchool we have seen bad results why they and there helpers still not named and punished .
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Feb 20, 2017 01:44pm
In this particular video many people just passed through without any check. And checking what? A fake metal detector is used which is nothing but a plastic toy. There needs to be a screening gate with at least three policemen to body search the people.
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Feb 20, 2017 04:51pm
Public can die but Bilawal and the rest wouldn't change their lifestyle for us.
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Feb 21, 2017 07:49am
Why IG Sindh has not been terminated yet for failing to protect the lives of Pakistanis???? I believe that he should have resigned over this grave fatal incident.
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Feb 21, 2017 03:43pm
Good work,
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Feb 21, 2017 09:12pm
Hats off to Pakistan for publishing this clip. Even though I am an Indian, I dare say the Indian establishment might not demonstrate such transparency.May Pakistan succeed with the investigations and nab the masterminds behind the ghastly attack.
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Feb 21, 2017 10:49pm
It is not security officer's fault if you carefully see. Screening method is defective. it should have a proper checking booth or area, allowing security to check each individual one by one.
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Feb 22, 2017 06:22am
How can one by pass CC Tv if some body is monitoring ?It shows no body is monitoring the CCTV
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