ISLAMABAD: The joint investigation team (JIT) probing the district courts attack has suggested exhuming the body of the slain additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) to identify his killer, it has been learnt from officials close to the team.

The officials told Dawn on the condition of anonymity that an interim report submitted to the Supreme Court on Friday stated: “The doctors have indicated that one bullet may not have exited the body of the judge. As no proper postmortem was carried out, the exhumation of the judge’s body may be required.”

As many as 12 people, including ADSJ Rafaqat Awan, were killed and 29 others injured in the terrorist attack on March 3. The police later claimed that the judge was killed after bullets accidentally fired by his own gunman hit him.

The officials added that internal postmortems on the bodies of the victims were not carried out which further complicated the case of the ADSJ killing.

“The ASJ’s gunman should have been arrested after collecting credible evidence against him,” the officials added.However, the interim report suggested that physical remand of the constable would be obtained for proper investigation and clarification of some unanswered questions.

Besides, the bullet hole found on the chamber door of the judge was being examined to ascertain whether it was fired from the weapon of the judge’s gunman or by a terrorist. The officials quoted the report as saying that the firearm evidence sent for the forensic examination established that it was from the revolver of the judge’s gunman.

No evidence of Kalashnikov round having been fired in the chamber and courtroom was found, the officials added.

There were contradictions in the statements of the witnesses - the gunman, reader Khalid Noon and Naib Qasid Anis - who were inside the chamber of the judge at the time of his killing.

“Lie detector test on the witnesses present inside the chamber of the ASJ is being planned,” said the officials.

A lot of physical evidence at the crime scene was lost, the officials said, adding the location of the cartridge empties recovered from various locations were not marked and packaged separately, so it was difficult to establish which weapon was used at what location.

“It appears the attack was not against a particular group and was an indiscriminate act of terrorism.”

The JIT is in the process of checking local seminaries for ascertaining their possible hands in the commission of the attack.

Those arrested for their involvement in terrorism activities in Islamabad and released from jail later are also being checked, the officials added.

The interior ministry has been requested to announce a reward of Rs2 million for those who would provide information leading to the identification of the terrorists and their accomplices.

The JIT stated that the police personnel deployed inside the court did not respond to the terrorists. Most of the policemen disappeared, it added.

The Anti-Terrorist Squad officials who confronted the terrorists had undergone a practice firing session about three years back, it added.