PESHAWAR: A day after a suicide bomber martyred three Federal Constabulary personnel at its Peshawar Headquarters, police said investigators were closing in on the perpetrators, having traced the hideout where the attackers stayed before launchingthe attack.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief Zulfiqar Hameed told reporters at the Peshawar gymkhana on Tuesday that the police and the Counter-Terrorism Department were working on clues to round up the facilitators, as then consisted of the CJP, now-retired Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Aminuddin.

Following the change, several petitions were well as to trace the footsteps of the assailants.

Mr Hameed said the police also impounded the motorcycle used by the attaclcers to arrive at the scene. `Police have also secured the details of ownership and teams have also visited the place where it was taken from,` Mr Hameed said. He said no arrests had been made so far.

In response to a question about the nationality of the attackers, hir Hameed did not rule out the possibility of the attackers being Afghans.

`The evidence collected thus far indicates the same,` he said, without elaborating. He also said that if there was no detail of local citizenship, then it meant they were `Afghans or something similar`.

But he also said that the police have shared the fingerprints of the attackers with Nadra to ascertain their identities. `We will soon get to the bottom of it,` Mr Hameed said.

According to the police chief, the investigation was going on and the police had collected forensic and explosive samples from the scene for analysis. He said that police teams also collected CCTV footage from acrossthe city andhadthe photos ofthe attackers.Besides,he saidthat the bomb disposal unit had collected explosive samples from the scene, which would be analysed to see whether they matched any sample previously used in attacks.

To another question, the KP police chief said that militants had changed their tactics and they were targeting public places. However, he said that the use of the armoured personnel carrier and other personnel in the FC headquarters attack showed that the police were well prepared and equipped, which made a difference.

He said that police had taken several steps to ensure the safety and security of their personnel, resulting in fewer casualties.

Mr Hameed said that figures for the current year showed that loss of lives for the police personnel has decreased by 40 per cent as compared to last year, even though the number of attacks had gone up manifold.

`We have made a significant investment in security infrastructure, which has enabled the personnel to defend themselves better,` he said.

Mr Hameed said that police were being equipped with anti-drone and thermal guns and sniper rifles. In addition to this, he said that police had completed the bulletproofing and armouring of 100 vehicles.