QUETTA: A team of Punjab Forensic Science Agency, along with personnel of Balochistan police and other investigation agencies, has started a probe into the suicide bombing on the convoy of Deputy Chairman of Senate Maulana Ghafoor Haideri.

The bombing in Mastung on Friday left 27 people dead and scores injured.

The three-member PFSA team, headed by senior investigation officer Arshad Ali, arrived here on Monday and immediately went to the Mastung bombing area to collect forensic evidence.

The authorities concerned have kept the crime scene intact since the bombing took place.

Balochistan Home Minis­ter Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti had requested the Punjab government to send a PFSA team to investigate the matter.

Sources said that the team members examined the bombing place and collected evidence. “We have collected evidence from the bombing place and it would be sent to a forensic laboratory for a detailed analysis,” a senior official said.

The Balochistan home minister has also set up an investigation team, comprising senior officers of police and other law-enforcement agencies. The team, headed by Home Secretary Dr Muhammad Akbar Harifal, has also started its investigation into the bombing.

A senior official of the Mastung administration told Dawn that the suicide bomber exploded himself on the driver’s side of Maulana Haideri’s vehicle, killing the driver, but the maulana survived the attack with some minor injuries.

He said that other people sitting in the vehicle, including Director of Staff of Senate Iftikhar Mughal and Hafiz Maulana Qudratullah Lehri, deputy chief of JUI-F Quetta district, died in the bombing.

The official said that the bomber had gone to the vehicle by foot and not on a motorcycle as was reported earlier. He said that police collected limbs of the suicide bomber from the area, adding that the face of the bomber was beyond recognition, but his legs and hands were intact.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2017