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Little headway in suicide bombings probe
Investigators have made little headway into Sunday’s suicide bombing in NWFP that killed at least 45 people and injured 108, prompting the government to set up investigation committees, police said. “Investigators have yet to find out whether the DI Khan suicide bomber was a young man and deceived the police by posing as a candidate for recruitment in police force,” DI Khan Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Habibur Rehman told reporters.

Rehman said he had constituted an investigation committee under the supervision of Superintendent of Police (SP) Anwar Saeed to probe the DI Khan suicide attack, but the police had so far not arrested anybody.

Sources in the police linked the suicide attack to the recent arrest of suicide bombers in DI Khan. The DIG said the police had recently recovered six suicide jackets and arrested three bombers last week, while one had blown himself up. He said the city was still under the threat of suicide attacks.

A local journalist, Saeedullah, told Daily Times that the DI Khan suicide bomber appeared to be around 45 years old. The NWFP government set up a two-member inquiry tribunal to investigate the suicide bomb blast at Dera Ismail Khan and it will submit its findings in seven days, said an official notification, APP reported. The tribunal is made up of Wadud Shah, Peshawar DIG (Investigation), and Muhammad Fahim Wazir, additional secretary (FATA) in the Home and Tribal Affairs Department.

Meanwhile, police arrested dozens of suspects from the bazaar near where two suicide bombers drove cars packed with explosives into an army convoy in Matta, Swat on Sunday. “We saw police arresting people after in the bazaar the blasts,” locals told Daily Times. Acting Swat DPO Abdur Rashid denied any arrest were made from the bazaar.

Agencies add: Dera Ismail Khan was put on high alert on Monday, with police checking vehicles leaving and entering the city, senior police officer Gul Afzal Afridi told AP. Investigators have collected samples from parts of the suspected suicide bomber’s body for DNA testing, Afridi said. “Yesterday’s attacks are likely linked to the Lal Masjid,” a senior investigator in DI Khan told Reuters. Militants based in North and South Waziristan with allies in towns and cites were believed responsible, he said.
Posted by: Fred 2007-07-17
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=193658