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MURREE, Aug 6: Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool on Tuesday visited the Murree Christian School in Gharial where six people were killed by unidentified terrorists on Monday.
The governor visited the elementary school and the boarding house. He also saw the places where people were killed.
He condoled with the school staffers and children and relatives of the deceased and announced Rs100,000 for the heirs of each of the deceased.
Talking to reporters, he said: “I came here to sympathize with the school administration and relatives of the deceased and praise the security arrangements at the school and bravery of the people including Constable Mohammad Manzar who retaliated and foiled the culprits’ design to attack the foreigners.”
He said the culprits involved in recent terrorist incidents had been arrested except those responsible for the Bakkar incident. “We have also concluded that the person involved in the incident at a church in Islamabad blew himself up in the attack,” he added.
He said the country had been hit by terrorists because of being a frontline state against terrorism but would continue its operations against terrorism undeterred.
He said: “We have few leads that would help us reach the culprits. We have also recovered some weapons used by the terrorists.”
To a question about the writing found in the bag of a terrorist pointing to involvement a group called “Intiqamal Pakistani”, he said he had no idea of this group.
IG PRESS CONFERENCE: Three teams have been formed for investigating the attack on a missionary school here.
This was stated by Inspector General (IG) Malik Asif Hayat who held a press conference here at the office of assistant superintendent of police. The teams, including members of the CID, will work under the supervision of SSP Rawalpindi Syed Marwat Shah.
He said some arrests had been made as part of investigation. Some explosive devices including a time-bomb and two grenades, 10 magazines and 300 bullets had also been seized, he added.
He was of the view that assailants must have spent three or four days in Murree prior to the incident and could not have managed such a big operation without local support.
He said that the delay in action was due to confusion created by initial reports that terrorists were inside the building and were holding the kids hostage.
To a question that the writing found in one of the bags of assailants that Muslims were suffering the world over pointed towards the possibility of the attack being part of retaliation of extremists against the world powers, he said such writings were always doubtful and were meant to misguide the investigators. For instance, he said, a fax was received after the Bahawalpur incident on a pad of “Lashkar-i-Omar”, which was obviously meant to change the course of investigation as there was no group in Pakistan by that name.
He said there had been no confirmation of the speculation that the terrorists might have used motorbikes.
The IG also announced Rs100,000 for the person who would point out the assailants.
The IG said that for the first time in the history of Pakistan, the government had taken interest in police reforms. As much as Rs617 million has been given to the Punjab police by the central government and Rs400 million by the Punjab government, which was a record, he added.
He said: “We are adopting measures to reach the culprits and will hopefully get to them soon.”
He also said that some Jihadis who sometimes used the Pakistani territory as a transit camp had returned to the country after the Afghan war.
DIG: The DIG of Rawalpindi range told reporters at the press conference that the police had cordoned off an area of about 5km radius around the school.
The DIG said that the motive of the terrorists was to damage the country’s reputation abroad. Foreigners were their targets, he added. The school building has not been evacuated, he further said.
