KOHAT, March 22: The masterminds of the massacre which claimed 46 lives and caused damage to property worth Rs1.49 billion following a suicide bomb blast in Hangu on Feb 9 have been traced by a team of investigators, sources told Dawn on Wednesday.

“The investigations have led us to the home where the suicide bomber stayed and laced himself with a bomb. The vehicle in which he came to Hangu has also been identified. We have closed in on all the accused and can put hand on them within hours. They can not escape now,” the sources said.

They said the law-enforcement agencies had expanded the investigations to a tribal agency where the plot was made.

“The terrorists wanted to spread hatred between the Shia and Sunni communities and destabilise the government,” they said.

They said the bomber was not local but the four to six people who facilitated him were residents of Hangu. The bomber came to the city on Feb 8 and was dropped on the main road at 3am by his accomplices.

Witnesses have identified the bomber as the same person who stayed at a house in the city for a few hours before executing the plan.

NWFP police chief Mohammad Raffat Pasha, said upon being asked about the matter: “The perpetrators of the massacre have been traced and they will not go unpunished. All the information will be released at an appropriate time very soon.”

Earlier, addressing a peace jirga here, Mr Pasha said the wave of terrorism had spilled over into the settled areas from Waziristan and according to intelligence reports terrorists planned to target police installations, law-enforcement personnel and commercial centres in Kohat, Hangu, Bannu, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan.

He said the accused arrested on Tank road a few days back with 10 hand grenades had admitted in a court that they planned to attack police and public places. The accused revealed during investigations they had hundreds of trained supporters, he said.

To foil their designs, police and intelligence agencies had chalked out a strategy to check infiltration of terrorists and weapons in the settled areas but public cooperation was necessary in this regard, he said.

He sought public support in the fight against terrorism.

He said Pakistan had become a victim of terrorism because it was playing the role of a front-line state in the war against terror.

He said weapons, ammunition and terrorists were coming to the settled areas from the tribal territory where a military operation was under way against Al Qaeda, Taliban and their supporters.