PESHAWAR, May 9: Police looking into the January 27 suicide bombing in Peshawar which claimed the lives of 17 people — including some senior police officials and nazims — say they have found a few crucial clues but have acknowledged that the investigations are far from over.

“We have found some important leads which cannot be disclosed at this time because doing so would put the investigations in jeopardy,” said a high-ranking police official. He said the bombing was linked to the ongoing spate of terrorist activities in the country.

“We are working in collaboration with several intelligence outfits. We are sharing information. We have some very useful clues which cannot be disclosed at the moment due to security concerns,” said the official involved in investigations into the suicide bombing which took place just before a religious procession was about to be taken out from the Qissakhawani Bazaar.

He said the investigators had interviewed policemen, who were injured in the blast, but they had no idea who carried out the attack. It was a very narrow street and there was a stampede after the blast. Moreover, all those who witnessed the incident were killed.

Another investigator said they were probing the incident from two angles. One involved the recent series of terrorist activities, allegedly carried out at the behest of Al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives, and the other involved sectarianism.

“Preliminary investigations are suggestive of the fact that the attack was a part of the ongoing series of bomb blasts in Dera Ismail Khan, Islamabad and other parts of the country,” he said, adding that at this point nothing could be stated with certainty.

“We can neither exclude the sectarian aspect nor the aspect of terrorism,” he said, adding that they were close to finishing the investigations, but nothing could be said about the conclusions.

“Nobody is under custody at the moment in connection with the case,” he told Dawn. The official also said that incidents of terrorism had taken the country by storm and police officials were carrying out investigations into all the bombings.

“Some of the high-profile cases, such as the one in which CCPO Malik Saad got killed is being accorded priority. The outcome of the investigation would soon be finalised and the culprits brought to book,” he said.

Police have already released sketches of the alleged suicide bomber, who, according to them, was in the age group of 17-18 years and happened to be an Uzbek.

The NWFP has witnessed several bombings in the recent past and police and law-enforcement agencies are yet to conclude the investigations into them. However, the police department has a special interest in the January 27 blast that killed several policemen.