Shikarpur blast: Police arrests seven suspects in raids

Sources say one suspect is a man who had stitched clothes for the suicide bomber.

SUKKUR: The police in Shikarpur have arrested seven men, including a tailor, in connection with the bomb blast at the Karbala Maula Imambargah last week.

At least 62 men were killed while more than 50 were injured when a powerful bomb tore through the crowded imambargah near Lakhidar Chowk during Friday prayers. The police reached the blast site nearly 24 hours later and since then has been collecting evidence and conducting raids in Mirani Bagh Mohallah, Channa Mohallah and neighbouring areas.

Around seven men, including a Sudheer Channa, Azhar Ali, Akhtiar Ali and Naveed Bhutto, have been arrested. Sources claim one of the arrested suspects is a man who had stitched clothes for the alleged suicide bomber.

Case update

After a thorough examination of the blast site, the Sukkur bomb disposal squad claimed that it was not a suicide attack. An official from the squad told The Express Tribune that someone had brought explosives into the imambargah wrapped in a plastic bag and left it near the staircase.

The police, on the other hand, claim that it was a suicide attack. They claimed to have found the head and legs of the bomber and adding that he was probably 25 years old and six feet tall. Later, however, it was revealed that the head found by the police and the Crime Investigation Department’s Umar Khattab at the blast site belonged to a 50-year-old man while the legs were those of a teenager.

Khattab visited the imambargah on January 31, the day after the blast, along with SSP Shikarpur Saqib Ismail Memon to collect evidence, which included a hand with a finger and thumb missing. The evidence was sent to a forensics laboratory in Karachi to help with the identification.

The police also found pieces of a shirt stitched by local tailor, Sudheer Channa. The shirt, according to the police, might have been worn by the alleged suicide bomber.

On Thursday, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar spoke at the National Assembly and claimed that the blast was carried out by a suicide bomber. He claimed that the police had found a finger which they believed belonged to the bomber and had sent it to the National Database and Registration Authority for identification.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 6^th, 2015.