SSP's house attack: Sindh’s CID angered by Rehman Malik’s claims, FIA analysis
No parts were found in the crater, leading to the assumption there was no suicide bomber.
KARACHI:
Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s statement that the bomb blast outside anti-terrorism officer Chaudhry Aslam’s house was not a suicide attack has pitted the entire Sindh police force against him.
On one side is Malik and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), and on the other are officers, mostly belonging to the Crime Investigation Department (CID) and the Special Investigation Unit of the Sindh police.
All police investigators involved in the case are extremely angry with Malik’s “irresponsible statement to the media”. They are continuing their investigation on their own leads that are based on the “fact” that a suicide attacker driving a vehicle laden with 300kg of explosives rammed it outside Aslam’s house early Monday morning.
One senior CID officer put it this way: “I can take humour, but I can’t take stupidity.” Another CID officer said that neither Malik nor the FIA, on whose report the minister based his statement, had the decency to first approach them with their findings and ask for their opinions in behind closed doors.
“But no, Malik saheb was in a rush to get some limelight in a case that affected our own officer,” the officer said, adding that the objective was only to adversely affect their ongoing investigations.
One senior officer with the SIU, who was the first person to reach the spot, dismissed the Malik-FIA claims as “hogwash”. “We are the ones who have cracked numerous cases in Karachi. What would they know?” he scoffed. “The FIA has zero expertise or success in Karachi.”
No parts, no suicide
Malik had relied on a file by the FIA’s Special Investigation Group, which reports directly to its chief based in Islamabad. SIG Deputy Director Faqeer Mohammad defended their findings. “If it is indeed a suicide blast driven by a bomber in a car, then some parts of the vehicle would have been found from the large crater outside Aslam’s house,” said Faqeer Mohammad. “But we found none.” In November 2010, when the CID headquarters at Civil Lines were attacked and a crater was blown into the ground, the SIG’s forensics team had found parts of the vehicle.
No car parts, no possible suicide bomber. Does this then mean that the 300kg bomb was planted on the ground outside the house? “We are still figuring that out,” said the SIG deputy director. “But we’re clear that it was not a suicide bomber in a car that did it.”
Police officers reject this and say maybe the FIA didn’t look harder. “Even if you find a ball bearing from the crater, how would you prove that it belonged to the suicide bomber’s vehicle and not other cars destroyed in the blast,” one senior police officer asked.
Another point which the SIG deputy director raises is that the debris of the cars outside Aslam’s house indicate that the bomb actually struck them first and not the gate or the walls of the house. “If I were the suicide attacker, I would have hit the gate or the wall, making sure the entire house collapsed. Aslam and his family wouldn’t have stood a chance, but that didn’t happen.”
Police officers say that perhaps the bomber did face resistance and exploded as close as he could. As for why Chaudhry and his family remained unscathed, one officer disclosed: “Due to the security threats, Aslam and his family had their bedrooms in the basement. That is why nothing happened to them.” He added that, however, it was school time for Aslam’s children and had the bomb exploded a few minutes late, the children would have been either on the ground floor like their cook who was killed or outside in one of the cars.
Also, the FIA says the DNA tests of a hand found from the site, that was previously thought to be of the bomber, has been determined to be that of a victim. Police investigators say a 300kg bomb vaporises suicide bombers. Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wassan has given a contradictory statement though. He said they were waiting for the DNA tests to come through.
Wassan added that if the bomb was planted, the men at Chaudhry’s house, who were on high alert, would have known. He added that the attack resembled those on the Marriott hotel in Islamabad and the US consulate in Karachi in which around 300kg of explosives were used.
The SIG’s Faqeer Mohammad said he believed that the explosive RDX was used. But he admitted that this assessment was based on his team’s experience rather than a lab report which was awaited. It doesn’t help that there is no clear video footage of the blast. The head of the police team, DIG South Commander Shaukat said he has called a meeting at 10pm on Wednesday to look into ‘all clues’ of the case. The FIA was not invited.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 22nd, 2011.
Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s statement that the bomb blast outside anti-terrorism officer Chaudhry Aslam’s house was not a suicide attack has pitted the entire Sindh police force against him.
On one side is Malik and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), and on the other are officers, mostly belonging to the Crime Investigation Department (CID) and the Special Investigation Unit of the Sindh police.
All police investigators involved in the case are extremely angry with Malik’s “irresponsible statement to the media”. They are continuing their investigation on their own leads that are based on the “fact” that a suicide attacker driving a vehicle laden with 300kg of explosives rammed it outside Aslam’s house early Monday morning.
One senior CID officer put it this way: “I can take humour, but I can’t take stupidity.” Another CID officer said that neither Malik nor the FIA, on whose report the minister based his statement, had the decency to first approach them with their findings and ask for their opinions in behind closed doors.
“But no, Malik saheb was in a rush to get some limelight in a case that affected our own officer,” the officer said, adding that the objective was only to adversely affect their ongoing investigations.
One senior officer with the SIU, who was the first person to reach the spot, dismissed the Malik-FIA claims as “hogwash”. “We are the ones who have cracked numerous cases in Karachi. What would they know?” he scoffed. “The FIA has zero expertise or success in Karachi.”
No parts, no suicide
Malik had relied on a file by the FIA’s Special Investigation Group, which reports directly to its chief based in Islamabad. SIG Deputy Director Faqeer Mohammad defended their findings. “If it is indeed a suicide blast driven by a bomber in a car, then some parts of the vehicle would have been found from the large crater outside Aslam’s house,” said Faqeer Mohammad. “But we found none.” In November 2010, when the CID headquarters at Civil Lines were attacked and a crater was blown into the ground, the SIG’s forensics team had found parts of the vehicle.
No car parts, no possible suicide bomber. Does this then mean that the 300kg bomb was planted on the ground outside the house? “We are still figuring that out,” said the SIG deputy director. “But we’re clear that it was not a suicide bomber in a car that did it.”
Police officers reject this and say maybe the FIA didn’t look harder. “Even if you find a ball bearing from the crater, how would you prove that it belonged to the suicide bomber’s vehicle and not other cars destroyed in the blast,” one senior police officer asked.
Another point which the SIG deputy director raises is that the debris of the cars outside Aslam’s house indicate that the bomb actually struck them first and not the gate or the walls of the house. “If I were the suicide attacker, I would have hit the gate or the wall, making sure the entire house collapsed. Aslam and his family wouldn’t have stood a chance, but that didn’t happen.”
Police officers say that perhaps the bomber did face resistance and exploded as close as he could. As for why Chaudhry and his family remained unscathed, one officer disclosed: “Due to the security threats, Aslam and his family had their bedrooms in the basement. That is why nothing happened to them.” He added that, however, it was school time for Aslam’s children and had the bomb exploded a few minutes late, the children would have been either on the ground floor like their cook who was killed or outside in one of the cars.
Also, the FIA says the DNA tests of a hand found from the site, that was previously thought to be of the bomber, has been determined to be that of a victim. Police investigators say a 300kg bomb vaporises suicide bombers. Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wassan has given a contradictory statement though. He said they were waiting for the DNA tests to come through.
Wassan added that if the bomb was planted, the men at Chaudhry’s house, who were on high alert, would have known. He added that the attack resembled those on the Marriott hotel in Islamabad and the US consulate in Karachi in which around 300kg of explosives were used.
The SIG’s Faqeer Mohammad said he believed that the explosive RDX was used. But he admitted that this assessment was based on his team’s experience rather than a lab report which was awaited. It doesn’t help that there is no clear video footage of the blast. The head of the police team, DIG South Commander Shaukat said he has called a meeting at 10pm on Wednesday to look into ‘all clues’ of the case. The FIA was not invited.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 22nd, 2011.