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by IANS |
Islamabad, Jan 4 (IANS) A high-level team probing the December 23, 2022 suicide attack targeting a police checkpost in Islamabad that killed a cop and critically injured others, has identified the suicide bomber, while a manhunt for at least two other facilitators, who helped the perpetrator reach the Pakistani capital, has been launched.
As per informed sources, authorities have identified two people who had helped the suicide bomber in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province and helped him reach Rawalpindi and then move ahead towards Islamabad to carry out the atta.
"There were two facilitators of the suicide bomber; one brought him to Islamabad on December 23 and the other, who was present in Rawalpindi, handed him the suicide jacket", stated an official, who is part of the investigation team.
Additional details revealed that the suicide bomber had travelled from Karak, KP, to Mardan city where he had stayed overnight along with one facilitator who handled his accommodation.
The next morning, the bomber travelled to Swabi city in KP, from where, he took a vehicle and travelled towards Pir Wadhai Bus Station in Rawalpindi.
The second facilitator received the bomber at Pir Wadhai.
"It is yet to be established if the bomber and his facilitator from KP had travelled with a ready-to-detonate suicide jacket or if it handed over to them by their facilitator in Rawalpindi," said a source with information about the investigation.
As carrying a suicide jacket is more risky and dangerous, it is believed that the Rawalpindi facilitator was the one who handed it over to the bomber.
"The bomber also made a call after reaching Pir Wadhai and talked to someone," said the source.
"We believe that the person with whom the suicide bomber spoke on the phone after reaching Pir Wadhai is the one who had arranged the suicide jacket for him."
With the remains of the suicide bomber recovered from the crime scene, which include the upper part of the body and four fingers, the investigators have succedded in finding out his identity after conduction forensic tests of the fingerprints.
The source further said that a mobile sim was also found at the crime scene, whose details of registration matched with the bomber's fingerprints.
"The suicide bomber was a native of Kurram district in KP and was identified at Saqib-ud-din, aged 22," he added.
Another person, who had made a video of Parliament and the Red Zone in Islamabad with his mobile phone and was heard stating "TTP is coming", has also been identified and arrested.
Intelligence sources confirmed that the person was affiliated with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terror outfit.
