Police still clueless as death toll surges by five

KARACHI The deadly bomb blast at the CID Civil Lines office claimed five more lives on Friday while the law enforcement agencies are still in the dark and yet to find out the culprits behind the incident. Jinnah Post Graduate Medical causality in charge Dr Seemi Jamali confirmed death of 16 people while 148 people were admitted in the hospital for treatment. The medico-legal section of the Civil Hospital said that a dead body was brought to the hospital while another injured person succumbed to injuries during treatment. Dr Jamali added that 50 people were being provided medical treatment in the hospital. On the other hand, with regard to the investigation process, the law enforcement agencies are giving different statements about the culprits behind the incident. The officials of Special Investigation Unit (SIU) and others when contacted informed that Karachi police had no mature clue about the suspects and it was premature to say that TTP was involved in the case. They, however, said that Karachi police was also investigating into the involvement of banned outfit Laskar-e-Jhangvi as the CID police had arrested the most wanted LJ men during recent operations. While SSP of the Anti-Extremist Cell of CID, Umar Shahid informed that Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan which was basically operating form North Wazristan was involved in the blast as the activist of TTP on telephone told International Wire Service that TTP was involved in the CID office blast. On Friday, the rescue services along with the staff of the City Government and DHA cantonment board continued the relief work to remove debris from the site and on the morning the rescue staff recovered the body of a young girl from the debris of shanty settlements behind the CID building who was latter identified as Rimsha, daughter of one Aslam and niece of a senior police officer. Meanwhile, the relatives of other six victims also identified their loved ones in JPMC mortuary. It is pertinent to mention here that, the law-enforcement agencies also recovered the body of the personnel of Frontier Constabulary, Siraj Uddin and CID official Abdul Qadir from the debris and according to relatives of the CID official, he received serious threats from the militants and switched off his cell phone for two days, the source said CID also investigating about this threats, were received by the Abdul Qadir and restarted the probe which was being investigated by the CID official. The deadly bomb blast occurred Friday night when an explosives-laden truck blew up inside the head office of the Crime Investigation Department (CID), which is located inside the main red zone of the city, destroying everything around it and turning the building into debris. The intensity of the blast was so severe that it was heard in a 15-km radius, destroying many of the high rises and shanty settlements in its path. The blast also left a 10 to 15-foot wide crater in the spot where it exploded. According to bomb disposal experts around 1,000-kg explosive was used in the blast filling the entire area with smoke.

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