KARACHI, July 13: The administrative judge of anti-terrorism courts on Friday transferred the Nishtar Park bomb blast case to ATC-V. The Investigation Office (IO) produced a three-page charge-sheet against the accused in the court of Abdul Ghafoor Memon.

It was reported that apart from the official witnesses, including police personnel, hospital staff, etc, police had recorded statements of about 116 private witnesses as well.

The possibility of sectarian terrorism cannot be ruled out as according to police, the alleged suicide bomber Mohammad Siddique belonged to the Deobandi school of thought and the victims of the attack –the Sunni Tehrik men—were followers of the Barelvi school of thought.

Police claimed to have found a human head from the bomb blast scene and DNA tests were carried out in this regard. It was said that a pipe was also found from the area which contained signs of splinters and could be produced in the court as evidence.

The accused in the case, Sultan, had reportedly supervised the preparations for the alleged suicide attack that claimed lives of 54 people, including Maulana Abbas Qadri, Hafiz Mohammad Taqi, Hanif Billoo, Maulana Iftikhar Bhatti and other top leaders of the Sunni Tehrik.

Mufti Zakir Hussain, Sultan alias Mahmood alias Muslim, Mohammad Amin alias Khalid Shaheen, activists of the outlawed Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, are all said to be the accomplices of the alleged suicide bomber Mohammad Siddique.

A fourth accused Rehmatullah alias Mufti Ilyas is already on remand while three more accomplices Qari Abid Iqbal, Khalid alias Darraywala and Abrar are absconding.

PIDC blast ‘mastermind’