ISLAMABAD, July 28: Experts investigating the two suicide attacks in the city this month believe that if the bombers had got cold feet at the last moment their ‘handlers’ would have blown them up.

Police sources told Dawn on Saturday that remote-controlled devices found attached to the explosives jacket of the two bombers suggested that someone was monitoring them and would have pulled the trigger if the suicide bombers wavered.

Though the identity and links of the suicide bombers are yet to be ascertained, there was a strong possibility that they were local Taliban from tribal areas or belonged to Al-Qaeda, the sources said.

Investigators found similarities between the two attacks which killed at least 34 people and injured scores of others. In both the attacks TATP/PETN explosive, weighing between 5 and 7 kilograms, was used for high blast force to cause maximum loss.

Revenge against the Lal Masjid operation was said to be the motive as personnel of law enforcement agencies were the target of both the attacks.

Police was provided the intelligence that five suicide bombers had entered Islamabad. After the two deadly attacks - at F-8 on July 17 and at Aabpara on July 27 - the danger remains that the three still at large might strike sometime, somewhere, the sources said.

Law enforcement agencies have received threats that they would be targeted in the near future, the sources added.

Local police and administration find themselves in a quandary and helpless in the situation. They could not avert Friday’s carnage despite having intelligence reports that suicide bombers had reached near Lal Masjid and could target security personnel.

A joint team of the Special Investigation Group, Islamabad police and various intelligence agencies is investigating both the suicide attacks.

It is headed by Deputy Inspector General of Police Shahid Nadeem Baloch, and includes superintendent of police CID, deputy superintendent of police CID, station house officer of Aabpara Abdul Rasheed Niazi, and officials of Inter Services Intelligence and Intelligence Bureau.

Pieces of burnt leather belt, which held the explosive, were collected from the Aabpara spot. Some pellets were found attached to the belt, the sources said.

They said it was difficult to establish the identity of the suicide bomber from the charred and disfigured head, torso, three fingers, a thumb and other body parts recovered from the blast site.

As the bomber had strapped the explosive to his waist, and its detonator under his neck, his head and lower part of the body blew away, the sources said.

His fingers were sent to NADRA for matching them with its fingerprints database. But it is a long shot as NADRA only keeps record of persons of age 18 and above while the suicide bomber appeared to be below 18.

A team of experts has however been able to reconstruct the left side of the attacker’s face by using plastic surgery techniques.

Meanwhile, the death toll of Friday’s suicide bombing has risen to 15 after one of the many injured died in the Federal Government Services Hospital. The deceased was identified as Abid Rizawan, an official of Punjab Police.

Several others remain on the critical list.

Of the 15 dead, nine were recruits from Punjab Police Constabulary, Rawat.

Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi visited Pims to inquire after the injured policemen.

Most of bodies kept in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) have been handed over to their family members after autopsy. The head and other remains of the suicide bomber are still lying in the hospital’s mortuary.