By DPA,
Islamabad : Police Tuesday investigated the crime scene at the residence of a lawmaker in central Pakistan where an overnight suicide bombing killed at least 20 people and wounded 60 others, officials and media reports said.
A young suicide bomber blew himself up Monday after sneaking into the family home of Rashid Akbar Niwani, in Bhakkar town in Punjab, the country’s most populous province. Niwani is a member of the lower house of Pakistan’s parliament.
“We have taken biological samples of the bomber which will be helpful in obtaining DNA fingerprints to identify him,” said Ahmed Kamal, a senior security official in the area.
Investigators were also planning to use a government database to find a match for the facial features of the attacker, whose severed head was recovered from the blast site.
The bomber was apparently among a small group of people who entered the house without security checks when the gates were briefly opened for a vehicle carrying Niwani, the Dawn newspaper said.
Niwani, who joined the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif after his election in the February 18 vote, was slightly injured in the attack which was carried out when he was meeting his supporters.
On Tuesday, all markets and government departments remained closed in Bhakkar to mourn the deaths.
Expressing “deep grief over the loss of precious lives,” the country’s top leadership condemned the bombing and vowed that such incidents would not deter it from fighting the growing militancy.
“The government is committed to wiping out the scourge of terrorism,” President Asif Ali Zardari said in a statement issued after the incident.
Monday’s suicide bombing was the latest in a spate of attacks on political leaders, government officials, security forces and diplomats.
Though no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, many believe it is a fallout of the continuing military offensives against Islamist militants in the north-western regions close to the Afghan border.