LAHORE, Oct 14: The FIA's Special Investigation Group has held police responsible for the Multan blast. A powerful car bomb explosion had left at least 40 people dead and over 70 injured near a mosque where followers of Maulana Azam Tariq had gathered to commemorate his first death anniversary.

According to an investigation report of the SIG, made available to Dawn on Thursday, all vehicles were allowed to be parked some 500 feet away from a ground adjacent to the Jamia Masjid Rasheedia where about 5,000 people had gathered to pay a tribute to the Maulana. "But the car used for the explosion was allowed to be parked 200 feet away from the place of the congregation."

The report said the police had set up two cordons as security measure. The outer one had four check posts, two on each entry points of the roads leading to Rasheediabad from both the front portions of the football ground, and the other at the ending portions of these roads in front of Wahdat Colony.

The inner one had six check points at the corners of each link road. The VIP participants had to reach the conference place through the main Rasheediabad Road from the Khanewal Road. SP City (Multan) Ashar Hamid Chaudhry was the over all incharge of both the cordons.

The report further said the car loaded with explosives entered the area through the VIP route at 4am about 15 minutes before the explosion. "The vehicle was entered either with the connivance of the police or by their negligence," the report pointed out.

It said the police also failed to find the chassis number of the exploded vehicle, which was later traced by the SIG team from the roof of a shop located 170 feet away from the place of explosion.

The car, 1991 Model Suzuki Mehran, was taken away from a student of MBA on Oct 5 in Naqshband Colony, Multan. But, the SIG report said the police even did not bother to register the case till Oct 7.

It said the conference schedule time was from Isha prayers to 1.30am, which was not observed by the mosque committee. Besides, it said, the incident took place in the presence of Multan DPO Sikandar Hayat.

Multan District Nazim Riaz Husain Qureshi, who had granted permission to the mosque committee to hold the conference, also attended it. Meanwhile, the SIG team submitted the report to its commander seeking approval for further work on the case.