By Staff Reporter
PESHAWAR: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Police Inspector General Moazzam Jah Ansari said on Thursday that police have traced the suicide attacker behind the Peshawar mosque blast that claimed more than 100 lives and injured at least 250 others, as he asked ‘detractors’ to ‘refrain from baseless speculations’.
Addressing a press conference in Peshawar, the K-P police chief vowed to avenge the death of those martyred in Monday’s blast, adding that police were “closing in” on the terror network behind the attack.
Ansari said police had obtained the CCTV footage of the suicide attacker, which showed how he entered the police lines and reached the mosque before blowing himself up.
“The suicide bomber, wearing a police uniform and a helmet, entered the mosque riding a motorcycle at 12:37 after sneaking the checkpoint where the cop did not frisk him because he had donned the uniform,” the police officer said.
The K-P police chief said it was not the work of a single suicide bomber, but a whole network was involved in the attack and that it had been identified.
Talking about the status of the probe, Ansari said the police have found ball bearings used in the suicide attack from the blast site.
Detractors must stop spinning rumour mills
The K-P police chief, who wiped his tears while being emotional, denounced speculations being linked to the incident, saying that “such baseless assumptions were very hurtful to him and his personnel.”
Commenting on ongoing speculations about the suicide attack, the K-P police chief said that it was painful to hear that the detractors, including some key political figures, were putting up fabricated theories about the blast, stating that they found no traces of a drone attack or use of explosives.
“There is no crater at the blast site, nor were any explosives found to be placed in the mosque,” he said, rubisshing claims that the explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device.
He urged the detractors to stop inciting policemen and let the police force investigate the attack, saying that a transparent and comprehensive probe would be conducted into the incident and everything would be revealed once it is completed.
He vowed to unearth the terrorist group involved in the deadly blast that also claimed the lives of more than 28 K-P police officers.
The K-P police chief’s press conference comes a day after a large number of policemen took to the streets in different districts of the province to condemn Monday’s blast, terming it an “inside job” and calling for an independent inquiry into the incident.
On January 30, a powerful explosion ripped through a mosque in Peshawar’s Red Zone area where between 300 and 400 people including polce officials had gathered for prayers. The suicide blast blew away the wall of the prayer hall and the inner roof of the building.
