The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) is still looking for clues for the arrest of the mastermind as well as facilitators of the suicide blast in Gulshan-i-Iqbal Park even four months after the incident. Over 70 innocent people had died and nearly 300 others sustained injuries.
The Lahore Easter blast at the heavily crowded park was declared as the country’s most devastating tragedy in which the anti-state elements had targeted innocent kids and women.
According to the CTD, the defamed Khorasani group/Jamaatul Ahrar (JuA) was behind the terror act.
This information had been confirmed in the first week of the incident when the Khorasani group itself owned the terror act and released a photo of the suicide-bomber to a section of media.
The Khorasani group is a splinter outfit of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
The powerful blast had ripped through a massively crowded area of the park on March 28 adjacent to Gate 1 which was housing many swings and rides where hundreds of kids and women were present.
According to an official, the CTD, which was established with a core purpose of eliminating terrorism in Punjab, could not make any headway into an investigation.
He said the target-less CTD officials took into custody 45 suspects from various parts of the province only to release public pressure.
Of them, he said, some were detained under the Protection of Pakistan Act (PoPA) for their inclination towards banned organisations or having their sympathies for such militant outfits.
The others were released after getting assurances from their family members, he said.
Since the PoPA expired on July 14, the detention status of the suspects also got controversial, he said.
The lack of interest, competence and a slow progress into the high-profile case were the main factors which led to the failure of CTD officials in reaching the terrorists behind this tragedy, the official claimed.
A spokesman for the CTD clarified the position of officials and claimed that the Gulshan-i-Iqbal park case had been solved.
The spokesman said that both the handler and the facilitator have fled to Afghanistan, hence the progress in the case has become slow.
He said the informers had been hired in Fata to provide information about their entry in Pakistan.
The progress would be shared with the media as and when the information is received, the CTD spokesman said.
