RAWALPINDI, June 8: A four-member team of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has started assisting the local law-enforcement agencies in the Bari Imam suicide bombing probe, an official source said on Tuesday. The source said the FBI team and intelligence agencies’ officials held a meeting with Superintendent of Police (Investigation wing) Ehsan Sadiq here on Tuesday and reviewed different aspects of the bombing which claimed at least 20 lives and left more than 100 injured.

The source said the FBI team was shown video films of the incident. The snaps of the victims as well as the DNA reports of the remaining body parts were also given to the US experts.

A team comprising, officials of FIA’s special investigation group, crime investigation department (CID) Punjab and Islamabad police, is already probing the incident, but has not reached any conclusion so far.

The FBI experts also examined severed part of a leg which, according to the local investigators, could be of the bomber. The police had also found a screw fixed in the leg.

A source close to the investigation claimed that the investigation team was about to make a breakthrough in tracing the identity of the real suicide bomber.

It may be recalled that the ICT police had suffered a setback after their claim regarding the identification of the suicide bomber was disputed when the family of the accused victim arrived in Islamabad from Haripur to claim his body.

A high-powered “chemical explosive device” with detonator had been used in the deadly suicide attack, the source said. He added that the chemical used in the blast was like that used in Marriott Hotel explosion on October 28, 2004. A joint investigation team had collected some samples of blood clots and skin pieces from the scene of the terrorist attack. But they were unable to trace any bomb particles, which led to the opinion that a chemical device had been used.