Police and other law-enforcement agencies have arrested a suicide bomber and his other three accomplices and recovered from their possession suicide jackets, grenades and other material, besides seven other suspects were taken into custody from Wah Cantonment after twin blasts in the vicinity of Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF).
Meanwhile, the death toll has reached 85 as some of the critically injured persons breathed their last in the hospitals. Police sources told Business Recorder that soon after twin suicide blasts, the law-enforcement agencies arrested a suicide bomber, who could not blew himself up.
The intelligence agencies interrogated him and on his pointation, the raiding parties were dispatched to the area, indicated by the main accused. They arrested three more persons were arrested and were taken to some unknown place, the police said.
The main suicide bomber was handed over to Rawalpindi Police after a case was registered against him while others are in Wah Cantt Police Station. It is expected that the Rawalpindi Police would present the main suicide bomber in Anti-Terrorist Court, Rawalpindi, on Saturday to get his physical remand.
Meanwhile, a Joint Investigation Team (JIT), headed by Rawalpindi City Police Officer (CPO) Rao Muhammad Iqbal, was constituted for investigation. Besides, CPO Rao Iqbal, officials from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and other intelligence agencies will be members of the JIT, which has started the probe. Police sources also said that more than seven suspects were taken into custody by the JIT, who were taken to unknown destination for interrogation.
They said that soon after the suicide attack at POF gates, the law-enforcement agencies recovered jackets from a nearby mosque and it was being assumed that the suicide bombers had stayed in the mosque for some time before they blew themselves up. They said that it was direct attack on the POF, established in early 1950s. It is a sprawling complex, manufacturing everything from tanks and small arms to artillery shells. Factory employs more than 40,000 workers.