ISLAMABAD: A police constable was killed and four other people were injured in a suicide blast at the gate of police’s Special Branch headquarters near G-7 Markez on Monday.
The boom resounded through a vast area, sparking panic in the city. It was the fist such attack in the federal capital in four months.
Interior Affairs Adviser Rehman Malik said it was a suicide attack carried out by one of the terrorists who had sneaked into the capital before the lawyers’ long march.
‘We had very authentic information that 15 to 20 Uzbek suicide bombers had been sent by Baitullah Mehsud after a meeting of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP),’ he said during a visit to a hospital shortly after the blast.
The explosion damaged the Special Branch building, a mosque and some vehicles. The incident took place a few minutes after scores of people had left the mosque after Isha.
Witnesses said constable Faysal Jan who was manning the main gate of the building intercepted the attacker when he tried to forcibly enter the premises.
’Aroused by the bomber’s evasive movements, Jan rushed towards him and took him into a tight embrace,’ they said, adding that the ensuing explosion blew him up, but saved many lives because his body took the brunt of the blast.
A Special Branch clerk who was working in a room near the gate and three other people were injured.
An assistant sub-inspector of Special Branch, Munir, told Dawn that the blast took place at 8:35pm when some people were offering prayers in the mosque and he was coming out. He saw the constable running towards the bomber and asking him to stop for checking. However, the attacker blew himself up when the constable overpowered him.
Limbs of the constable and the attacker lay scattered within a radius of 200 metres. Parts of the bomber’s face and head were found on the rooftop of the mosque and in bushes in the parking area. They were sent to a laboratory for reconstruction.
The attacker had a trimmed beard, long hair and seemed to be 23 to 25 years old. A leg was also found.
According to police, preliminary investigation suggested that a locally made bomb weighing between four and six kilograms had been used. There were some reports that an accomplice of the bomber had been arrested while fleeing after the blast.
Rehman Malik, the interior affairs adviser, said: ‘I salute this brave policeman for such an act of gallantry.’
He said security in Islamabad was on high alert because the government had been tipped off about the attack.
In reply to a question, the adviser said: ‘No effective mechanism has so far been developed anywhere in the world to pre-empt a suicide bombing.’
Mr Malik said those responsible would be dealt with an iron hand. ‘We shall clear Pakistan of them all.’ Mr Malik said he had constituted a team to probe the incident.
Sources said the Special Branch was on the ‘hit list’ of terrorists and it had been receiving threats since the Lal Masjid operation of July 2007.
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