By IRNA,
Islamabad : Members of the Pakistani investigation team Sunday visited site of the deadly truck suicide bombing and collected explosive materials for forensic laboratories test, officials said.
Death toll from the Saturday’s blast rises to 50 as more bodies were recovered from the rubbles of the five-star Hotel Marriot, target of the bomber, rescue and hospital sources said.
Army and civil defence teams recovered 10 more bodies on Sunday as search continued for more bodies.
The bodies were burnt and were mutilated.
Rescue teams are facing problems in search due to heat in rooms and smoke is still emitting from the burnt hotel.
Police sources said that 8 people have been taken into custody in Islamabad and 20 others rounded up in raids in Rawalpindi.
The government has not officially confirmed any arrest.
The Interior Ministry said that a high level probe has been ordered and Joint Investigation team headed by Director General Federal Investigation Agency has been constituted and the team has been directed to submit its initial report Sunday.
The ministry asked the people to provide information regarding person(s) involved in this cowardly act.
The information will be welcomed and the person will be rewarded with an amount of 10 million rupees and his/her name will be kept secret, an Interior Ministry statement said.
The Ministry conformed two foreign nationals lost their lives and another 21 injured, adding the nationalities of the casualties of foreigners are being ascertained.
Doctors at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences Islamabad said that a dead body of foreigner was brought to the main hospital on Sunday.
The Interior Ministry said that at 1940 hours on Saturday, a suicide bomber rammed his explosive laden truck at the main gate of Marriot Hotel causing a huge blast, when security men tried to stop the vehicle.
“The blast was so huge that the hotel building caught fire”.
Elaborate and unprecedented security arrangements were made all around the Red Zone in view of general security threat, but the security arrangements, the suicide bomber exploded his dumper outside the Red Zone perimeter, the Ministry said.
Additional measures are being taken to beef up security of public places, government installations and likely targets of terrorist elements, it said.
The provincial governments have been asked to review and revisit their security plans and to accelerate their intelligence collection apparatus to apprehend the terrorists before they carry out further cowardly and unholy acts of terrorism.