RAWALPINDI: Death toll of the suicide attack that occurred in a mourning procession at Dhoke Syedan on Wednesday night has risen to 23.
Death toll rose from 16 after the persons, who were critically wounded in the attack, died from their injuries in various hospitals, a police rescue spokeswoman Deeba Shehnaz told AFP.“A total of 23 people have expired and 62 injured, eight of them are children,” she said.
The bodies shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital were identified as Ghazanfar Ali, Saqlain, Tanvir Shah, Muhammad Shabbir, Aun Ali, Asif, Nadeem Nawaz, Zia Shah, Syed Kmran Kazmi and Mushtaq Shah, the hospital sources told APP, adding “Two bodies could not be identified so far”. The Military Hospital received six bodies which were identified as Shabbir Hussain, Shaheeen Raza, Muhammad Adil, Muhammad Azeem, Raheel Abbas and Danish.
Meanwhile, police found a mutilated head from the site of incident, which the law enforcement agencies believed is of the suicide attacker.
The head and other body parts of the attacker have been sent to laboratory for DNA test, police sources said. Meanwhile, the 17 victims of the Dhoke Syedan suicide attack were laid to rest here at a local graveyard near Qasr-e-Shabbir Imambargah on Thursday evening.
A collective funeral prayer of the victims was offered at the Qasr-e-Shabbir Imambargah.Managing Director of Pakistan Bait-ul-Maal Zamurd Khan announced Rs60,000 as compensation each for those who was killed and Rs30,000 each for the injured in the suicide attack.
Talking to journalists, Zamurd Khan strongly condemned the terrorist attack at the mourning procession and said that perpetrators of this heinous crime are enemy of Islam and Pakistan. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for twin bomb attacks in Karachi and Rawalpindi. “We carried out the attacks (on Wednesday) in Rawalpindi and Karachi because the community is engaged in defiling the Prophet,” spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told by telephone from an undisclosed location. —Agencies
Our crime correspondent adds: Police Thursday arrested four suspects, including a religious leader, in connection with the suicide attack on mourning procession in front of Qasar-e-Shabbir Imambargah. Sources said police have registered the case on Thursday night under sections 302/324 PPC, 7 ATA and 4/5 Explosive Act on the complaint of SHO.
