KOHAT, Aug 12: Investigators have ascertained the identity of the man who blew himself up while planting bombs on July 28 near the residence of the general officer commanding of the 9th division of the Pakistan Army in the Kohat cantonment last month.

Two officers of an intelligence agency, one of them an assistant director, were also killed in the incident. The bomber has been identified as Akhtar Zaman, son of Haji Noor Jan, an Afghan refugee, a resident of Parachinar, Kurram Agency, who had been reported missing by his parents three days before the blast.

The brother and the father of the bomber were present at the Kohat graveyard where his body was exhumed in the presence of SP investigation Faiz Mohammad Khan Khattak on Thursday.

They identified him from his fingers, buttons of his shirt, the rosary, the comb and the wristwatch recovered by the investigators. The decomposed body was later buried at the same grave as the bomber's father and brother refused to take it to Kurram Agency.

The bomber's father, Haji Noor Jan, told police that his 21-year-old son used to run a shop in Parachinar. He left the school while he was in the fifth class and took admission to a local madressah from where he received basic religious education. He claimed that his son did not belong to any religious organization or jihadi group.

In reply to a question, SP Faiz Khattak said the father and the brother of the bomber decided to bury the body again in Kohat due to some personal reasons. SP Faiz Khan Khattak said that the father and the brother had themselves decided to bury the body in Kohat for personal reasons.

He said Noor Khan had told him that his family belonged to the Zazi area of Paktia province in Afghanistan bordering Kurram Agency. After ascertaining the identity of the bomber, the investigators are now trying to reach the people who had hired him and are interrogating his close friends and other relatives in Kurram Agency.