Police find another rented flat of KU suicide bomber

Footage shows terrorist conducting recce of the spot, 24 hours before the attack

KARACHI:

The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Sindh police and other law enforcement agencies have traced out another flat of the female suicide bomber involved in the Karachi University attack. It is situated on the first floor of a residential building in Street No10 of Delhi Colony.

Investigative sources said that during the joint raid, CTD seized laptops, mobile phones and other important documents from the flat before sealing it off. They said that the flat was rented two months ago, while information was also obtained from the residents who revealed that the female suicide bomber would sometimes visit the flat with her husband and two children. However, the couple did not talk much with anyone.

Investigators are also looking for the real estate agent who helped the female suicide bomber acquire the flat on rent, while footage of close circuit TV cameras, installed in the residential building, is also being obtained.

According to sources, the investigative authorities had also detained an online taxi driver for questioning. He was later released after obtaining information. The taxi driver had picked up the suicide bomber from a hotel near Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

Investigators have also identified a school in Gulistan-e-Jauhar where the daughter of bomber studied and the scope of the investigation has been widened.

Earlier, CTD officials tracked down and sealed the flat on the third floor of a building in Block 13 of Gulistan-e-Jauhar which belonged to Shari Hayat Baloch alias Barmash, who carried out the suicide attack on a Chinese teachers' van at Karachi University. Whereas the house of the father of the suicide bomber, located in Scheme 33, was also traced and sealed after a search.

Read More: KU bomber arrived in city on ‘March 20’

Recce footage

Investigators have obtained footage of a female bomber committing suicide attack at Karachi University. In the video, the female suicide bomber can be seen on the crime scene 24 hours before the suicide attack on April 25 at 2:08pm.

The next day, according to the footage, the female suicide bomber attack a van at 2:07:32 pm on April 26, killing three Chinese teachers and a Pakistani van driver. The footage shows female suicide bomber Shari Hayat Baloch walking on the spot, noticing time and doing recce of the van. Investigative sources said that it is also suspected that her facilitators were also present during the Reiki of the suicide bomber. The female suicide attacker entered University of Karachi in rickshaw from Silver Jubliee Gate at the day.

Before the attack, a white car was seen passing in front of the rickshaw. However, it would be premature to comment on the presence of a facilitator in the vehicle. Meanwhile, another woman who got off a rickshaw before the suicide attack at Karachi University had last met the suicide bomber. However, no significant developments have been reported so far regarding the identity of the other woman and who she was and where she went into hiding.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2022.