PESHAWAR: The Counter-Terrorism Department said on Tuesday that three suicide bombers, who were killed accidently last month, were members of banned Jamaat-ulAhrar.

Officials said that the suicide bombers were planning to target an educational institution. Two suicide bombers and their handler were killed in small hours of May 20 when a suicide vest worn by one of them went off prematurely.

A senior CTD official told journalists at Police Club that the bodies of two bombers were identifiable while the third was blown into pieces and could not be identified.

He said that the attackers had also erased their natural fingerprints to escape identification. The pictures, shown to journalists, depicted that flesh of their fingertips was damaged.

However, the official said that they managed to trace the motorcycle and arrested a local man as Fazlur Rehman in Warsak Road area of city with whom the terrorists had spent the night. The local man had provided them with motorbike.

The official said that one of the bombers was identified as Rafaqat, a resident of Mohamad Agency, while the second was a foreigner, probably an Uzbek. He said that two days earlier the same group carried out bomb blasts in the limits of Mathra police station wherein a policeman was killed and 19 others were injured.

The official said that the militants were associated with banned Jamaat-ul-Ahrar also known as Tehreek-i-Taliban Mohmand (TTM).

He said that TTM was active in the areas of Peshawar bordering with Mohamad Agency and parts of Charsadda. The same network was active in the limits of Khazana, Daudzai, Mathra and to some extent Faqirabad police station, he said, adding that the group was based in Afghanistan close to Pakistani border.

The official said that on pinpointing of Fazlur Rehman, police raided a place in Regi and recovered a huge cache of explosives. He said that the cache included 441 meters of prima cord, two magnet bombs, 50 kilograms of explosives, 50 safety fuses, 14 time devices, 13 detonators and an improvised explosive device.

The official said that Fazlur Rehman was also a resident of Mohmand Agency and used to work as labourer at a marble factory on Warsak Road. He was associated with TTM sleeper cell in the provincial capital, he added.

The official said that some members of the group were Afridi tribesmen. He said that so far they had arrested eight persons associated with the sleeper cell. He said that the group was responsible for several incidents of extortion, bombing and targeted killing.

The official said that four militant groups were active in different parts of the provincial capital. He said that a section of one group was involved in extortion, while other section was responsible for incidents of targeted killing. One group was active in northern parts of the city while one was operating in the rural areas on the southern fringe of the city, he added.