The new tactics being adopted by suicide bombers to ensure that there are no clues left behind after an attack are causing problems in investigation, a Crime Investigation Department official asking not to be named told Pakistan Today on Monday.
“Normally, we use DNA and the fingerprints of suicide bombers to ascertain their identity, but in the attack at Hazrat Abdullah Shah Ghazi (RA)’s shrine, the bombers used a new tactic to ensure their identities remained concealed,” he said.
The attackers carried an inflammable chemical in their suicide vest so that their face and hands were burnt as soon as the blast occurred. This is for the first time in the country’s history that there has been evidence of suicide bombers using such a tactic, and is likely to create problems for investigators in future, he said.
“The suicide bombers used a chemical to destroy the clues as we ascertain a bomber’s identity after examining the head and fingerprints,” he said. In the recent attack this tactic had failed and CID has managed to find out the identity of one of the attackers, he said.
“More details about what the chemical will be disclosed by the Bomb Disposal Unit report due in a few days,” he said.
The CID official further told Pakistan Today that one bomber had eight kilogrammes of explosives strapped to him and the other one carried 12 kilogrammes.
“The death toll could have been higher than that in the Data Darbar attack in Lahore if the bombers had found a more open space to detonate the bombs, the confined spots reduced the impact of the explosions,” he said.
