KARACHI: A police investigation team probing into the deadly bomb attack on SP CID Mohammad Aslam Khan’s convoy has declared the case ‘solved’, making it the ninth such case out of 23 suicide attacks carried out across Sindh since 2002 that police investigators pursued to its logical end, it emerged on Tuesday.

The investigators, however, said that the arrest of key suspects, including the chief of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and his close aides, was yet to be made for the final closure of one of the high-profile terrorism cases that Karachi witnessed in recent years.

“In this particular case, every crucial fact has been traced and verified including the attacker, motive and the planners. Now only the arrest of the suspects nominated in the FIR is awaited,” said SP Niaz Ahmed Khosa of the CID, one of the DIG Zafar Abbas Bukhari-led team members tasked with the SP Aslam attack investigation.

SP Aslam, better known as Chaudary Aslam, was killed with his two guards in a bomb attack on his convoy when it was passing through the Lyari Expressway near Essa Nagri on Jan 9.

The police initially suspected that the bomb attack had been carried out with a remote-controlled device, but later they claimed to have found the remains of an unidentified person at the crime-scene.

A day later, the investigation team arrived at the conclusion that a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden pick-up truck into the bulletproof SUV of the police officer just after it hit the Lyari Expressway.

The officials claimed to have identified the suspected bomber as 26-year-old Naeemullah, a resident of the Pirabad area, in Orangi Town. The authorities then took no time to trace his link with the TTP and nominate the banned organisation’s chief Fazalullah and his close aide Shahidullah Shahid in the FIR for the fatal attack.

Findings

“There are also some interesting findings which emerged during the SP Aslam case investigation,” said another official, wishing not to be named while citing facts about the explosive and bomb used for the attack.

“The attack was carried out in an extremely skilled manner to hit the bull’s eye without a slight difference of inches… neither left nor right. The job was done in a very proficient way meeting international standard and trend of these kinds of assaults.”

To assert his findings, he shared a few facts mentioned by the bomb disposal unit in its report. It showed that the attack had a range of 51 metres for ‘lethal air blast’ with ‘building evocation distance’ of 195 metres.

“Similarly, the attack caused falling glass hazard within a range of 838 metres and outdoor evocation distance was 838 metres. If one goes through the findings of major bomb attacks across the globe more or less the same damage was reported with key features of bombing remain the same,” added the official.

‘14 cases yet to be solved’

“Since 2002, there have been 23 suicide attacks in Sindh and among them 20 were carried out in Karachi alone,” said SP Khosa.

“Other three attacks were carried out in Sukkur and Nawabshah. As far as the attack on SP Aslam is concerned that case has been marked as solved and with this total number of solved suicide attack cases in Sindh now stands at nine.”

“Some 14 cases still remain unsolved,” he added.

When asked about the key differences between the ‘solved’ and ‘unsolved’ cases, he cited a few findings or in some cases several untraced crucial facts, which helped investigators to categorise each case. The identification of suicide bomber, he said, was recognised as one the most vital facts that could lead the investigation to ‘solved case’ category.

“Similarly, a case can be called solved if motive, forces behind an attack and definitely its planner and handler are traced and recognised during the course of investigation,” the SP added.