LAHORE: As the death toll in Wednesday’s Data Darbar suicide bombing rose to 13 on Sunday, law-enforcement agencies have yet to find any clue that can help them trace the perpetrators.

Tahir Aslam, an 18-year-old resident of Pakpattan, was working at a shop near the shrine. He was among the critically injured and brought to the Mayo Hospital after the blast which claimed the lives of six policemen and seven civilians.

A senior police official told Dawn on condition of anonymity that as far as the investigations into the case were concerned, security forces had yet to make any substantial progress. He said that although they had arrested a few suspects from Lahore, they were no big leads.

However, some media channels quoting the Counter-Terrorism Dep­artment (CTD) reported that agencies had arrested a suspected facilitator of the suicide bomber from Gujra­nwala. The suspect was identified as Zeeshan who was taken into custody from his home in Gujranwala. Police sources said that Zeeshan was released on Sunday evening while his cell-phone had been sent for forensic analysis. In a video message before his arrest, Zeeshan said that he was inside the shrine at the time of the blast and ran out as soon as he heard the bang.

“I am being labelled as a facilitator of the suicide bomber after I was spotted in the CCTV footage,” he said.

Earlier, the CTD had arrested five suspected facilitators of Data Darbar attack from Garhi Shahu area after conducting a raid at a tea stall.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2019