Whodunit: No leads in Sabzi Mandi blast yet
Government promises to deliver compensation amount in two days.
The capital police on Thursday detained people for questioning, both from Islamabad and parts of Punjab. PHOTO: REUTERS
ISLAMABAD:
The capital police on Thursday detained people for questioning, both from Islamabad and parts of Punjab, as investigations into the deadly bomb blast at Islamabad’s fruit-and-vegetable market continued without much success.
A five-kilogram bomb had exploded at one end of the busy market on Wednesday morning. By Thursday afternoon, the death toll had risen to 25, with over 110 injured.
The Islamabad chief commissioner constituted a joint-investigation team for the incident, authorities said. The team includes members from the police and intelligence agencies. It will determine the motive and perpetrators of the attack, according to law-enforcement officials.
The bomb had been planted inside a crate of guavas and went off when local commission agents were selling fruit boxes to local vendors and buyers, eyewitnesses said.
Police teams had been dispatched on Wednesday evening to Arifwala, Kabirwala, Multan, Burewala and parts of Pakpattan district, from where the consignments of guavas had originated.
These teams apprehended five people from these cities for interrogation, the police said. The police also recorded the statements of commission agents, vendors, labourers and eyewitnesses. Earlier they also interrogated eight traders who were involved in bringing the guavas to Islamabad.
Fourteen commission agents were also held and grilled by the police, but seven were released after initial questioning, according to sources. In a search operation on Wednesday night, the police claimed 30 Afghan refugees were detained from areas surrounding the vegetable market in I-11 for interrogation.
A senior police official involved in the investigations said they were waiting for analysis of samples of the explosives taken from the blast site to determine the mode of the attack.
“No conclusions can be drawn yet,” the official, who requested anonymity, said. “But we are also checking whether the bomb was transported in the crate from outside the capital or that it might have been planted in the boxes here.”
Market remains closed, security promised
The bustling fruit-and-vegetable market was drained of colour and engulfed in an eerie silence on Thursday morning, as fruit traders kept their stalls closed in mourning and in protest.
Most of the people who died or got injured were daily-wage labourers who loaded and unloaded the produce and lived nearby in the I-11/1 and I-11/4 katchi abadis. Some of the dead and injured were also from Fauji Colony in Rawalpindi.
Around 250 people attended the funeral prayers, offered in absentia at the Sabzi Mandi.
“I cannot believe it,” said Saifullah, a day labourer at the market. “They were my friends. Now they are gone forever.”
The fruit traders had announced they would forcibly close the market unless the administration builds a security wall around the market. On Thursday, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration officials met with the traders and heard their grievances.
“They promised us there will be some security measures in place,” said Fruit Market Commission Agents Association General Secretary Tahir Ayub.
The boundary wall might not materialise until the law ministry approves appropriate changes to the Agriculture Produce and Markets Ordinance (APMO), which would enable the ICT Administration to take administrative control of the market. But some security fences can be put up to secure entry to the market, ICT officials said.
Ayub said the traders also demanded compensation for the families of the dead and for the injured, which he said was promised to be delivered within two days.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 11th, 2014.
The capital police on Thursday detained people for questioning, both from Islamabad and parts of Punjab, as investigations into the deadly bomb blast at Islamabad’s fruit-and-vegetable market continued without much success.
A five-kilogram bomb had exploded at one end of the busy market on Wednesday morning. By Thursday afternoon, the death toll had risen to 25, with over 110 injured.
The Islamabad chief commissioner constituted a joint-investigation team for the incident, authorities said. The team includes members from the police and intelligence agencies. It will determine the motive and perpetrators of the attack, according to law-enforcement officials.
The bomb had been planted inside a crate of guavas and went off when local commission agents were selling fruit boxes to local vendors and buyers, eyewitnesses said.
Police teams had been dispatched on Wednesday evening to Arifwala, Kabirwala, Multan, Burewala and parts of Pakpattan district, from where the consignments of guavas had originated.
These teams apprehended five people from these cities for interrogation, the police said. The police also recorded the statements of commission agents, vendors, labourers and eyewitnesses. Earlier they also interrogated eight traders who were involved in bringing the guavas to Islamabad.
Fourteen commission agents were also held and grilled by the police, but seven were released after initial questioning, according to sources. In a search operation on Wednesday night, the police claimed 30 Afghan refugees were detained from areas surrounding the vegetable market in I-11 for interrogation.
A senior police official involved in the investigations said they were waiting for analysis of samples of the explosives taken from the blast site to determine the mode of the attack.
“No conclusions can be drawn yet,” the official, who requested anonymity, said. “But we are also checking whether the bomb was transported in the crate from outside the capital or that it might have been planted in the boxes here.”
Market remains closed, security promised
The bustling fruit-and-vegetable market was drained of colour and engulfed in an eerie silence on Thursday morning, as fruit traders kept their stalls closed in mourning and in protest.
Most of the people who died or got injured were daily-wage labourers who loaded and unloaded the produce and lived nearby in the I-11/1 and I-11/4 katchi abadis. Some of the dead and injured were also from Fauji Colony in Rawalpindi.
Around 250 people attended the funeral prayers, offered in absentia at the Sabzi Mandi.
“I cannot believe it,” said Saifullah, a day labourer at the market. “They were my friends. Now they are gone forever.”
The fruit traders had announced they would forcibly close the market unless the administration builds a security wall around the market. On Thursday, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration officials met with the traders and heard their grievances.
“They promised us there will be some security measures in place,” said Fruit Market Commission Agents Association General Secretary Tahir Ayub.
The boundary wall might not materialise until the law ministry approves appropriate changes to the Agriculture Produce and Markets Ordinance (APMO), which would enable the ICT Administration to take administrative control of the market. But some security fences can be put up to secure entry to the market, ICT officials said.
Ayub said the traders also demanded compensation for the families of the dead and for the injured, which he said was promised to be delivered within two days.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 11th, 2014.