Initial investigations suggest first blast was not a suicide attack

Absence of human flesh with ball bearings from a bomb suggests the first blast was not the work of a suicide bomber.

KARACHI: The absence of human flesh with the ball bearings from a bomb are strongly suggesting that the first blast at the shrine was not the work of a suicide bomber.

This observation and others have led to conflicting reports by law-enforcement agencies, sources revealed on Saturday.

FIA forensics experts believe that both blasts were not ‘suicide attacks’. They said evidence found at the site of the first blast does not point towards a suicide bomb.

Investigators have found only one striker sleeve, a kind of pin used to detonate a suicide jacket. But as a second one has not been found yet, only the second blast has so far been described as the work of a suicide bomber.

Meanwhile, police, investigative officials and experts are claiming that both attacks were carried out by suicide bombers. According to sources, experts from the FIA’s Special Investigation Group (SIG) reached the shrine right after the attack around sundown. However, they started collecting evidence on Friday morning.

Officials said that the first blast occurred right at the gate where the walk-through-scanners are installed, sources added. The explosion destroyed the top of the scanners. The roof of the shed in the porch was punctured with ball bearings. If the attack had been a suicide one, pieces of human flesh and blood would have been found along with the ball bearings.

A head was found on the roof of the shed, and is believed to have belonged to the “first” suicide bomber. Experts believe that the first blast happened below the level of the shed so it is unlikely that the head found on top of the shed belongs to the suicide bomber.

The second explosion took place 25 to 30 feet away from the first one. Investigators are thinking that the second head  that was found on the right side of the stairs, close to the graves, could belong to a person who was standing close to the suicide bomber.

Statements from witnesses are so conflicting that it is almost impossible to reach a conclusion based on their testimony, sources said.

Forensic experts are now exploring the possibility that one bomb might have been planted. But they are being thrown off by the fact that no crater was formed, something that is a telltale sign of a planted device.

According to sources, the experts said that the first blast was probably a low-intensity blast. While experts have not arrived at a conclusion, they believe that around one to two kilogrammes (kgs) of explosives were used in the first bomb while the second one contained around five kg of explosives.

The SIG had earlier found that the Ashura blasts were not suicide attacks but were caused by planted bombs.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2010.