RAWALPINDI: In the first information report (FIR) registered following the terrorist attack in Attock, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) did not declare the attack a suicide bombing or mention the number of suicide bombers.

Earlier, the Inspector General of Police Punjab Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera said the attack was a suicide bombing, involving two bombers.

The FIR registered with the CTD police noted that retired Col Shuja Khanzada arrived at his dera at around 11am and a mighty explosion caused the building to collapse.

“All the people inside the building were trapped under the debris,” it said.

Punjab Home Minister retired Col Shuja Khanzada and 18 others were killed in his home town Shadi Khan, some 80 kilometres south-west of Islamabad in a suicide attack on Sunday.

NCMC issued general alert, but no specific intel regarding threat to minister

According to security sources, a general threat alert had been issued by the National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) of the federal government regarding possible retaliation against the killing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) chief Malik Ishaq on July 26.

Law enforcement agencies had been directed to tighten security around government and military installations.

While no specific alert had been issued regarding a threat against the Punjab home minister, the CTD had issued an alert on August 13 and participants of a high level meeting had been informed that prominent leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz could be targeted in Rawalpindi during the next few days.

“No alert was issued regarding any specific federal or provincial minister of the ruling party in Punjab,” a security official told Dawn.

Col Khanzada was a retired intelligence officer, who was leading the campaign against terror groups and had created the CTD in Punjab.

He was also supervising the implementation of the National Action Plan in the province.

Meanwhile, the bodies of the blast victims were shifted to the mortuary at the District Headquarters Hospital in Rawalpindi. Severed limbs, suspected to belong to an attacker were also shifted to the hospital.

Investigators collected finger prints of two unidentified bodies, one of whom is also suspected to be a suicide bomber.

“Forensic evidence, including finger prints was collected by the investigators and sketches were drawn with help of information provided by the injured victims. The concerned authorities are also working on geo-fencing the area to trace all calls made from mobile phones,” a source close to the investigation revealed.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2015

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