Incinerating liquid used in Multan blast: police

MULTAN:

Security forces and investigation agencies were busy collecting evidence and searching for leads regarding the dreadful bomb blast that claimed 11 lives on Vehari Chowk of Multan last night.

City Police Officer DIG Azhar Akram told the media that the perpetrators of the dastardly act used a liquid chemical in the bomb which caused severe burn injuries.

Multan’s top cop said that this chemical was used for the first time in Pakistan and samples of skin and lungs of the victims have been sent to forensic lab in Lahore to ascertain the origin of the incinerating liquid.

Investigation officials and intelligence agencies have so far ruled out involvement of sectarian outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in initial investigations, he said.

Meanwhile, ambulance service volunteers said that the intensity of the explosion was such that body parts of some of the dead and injured have been collected as far as 120 feet from the spot of the blast.

However, the casualties did not mount, doctors said. Death toll remained at 11, whereas injured were 79. Situation of 20 critically injured was now stable, said Medical Superintend Nishtar Hospital Dr Ashiq Malik. The biggest hospital of the city is still in a state of emergency, while the district government has appealed for blood donations for the injured.

Post-mortems of all the dead bodies have been completed and they have been identified. No one has been so far declared as terrorist, Dr Malik said.

Minister for Zakat and Usher Nadeem Kamran on the instructions of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited Nishtar Hospital and met the victims of the bomb blast.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2015.