Two Rangers posts attacked with bombs

Karachi

Two Rangers check-posts were damaged in bomb attacks in Gulshan and PIB Colony on Sunday however no casualties or injuries occurred. Police believe that banned outfits are responsible for the attacks. 

An attempt at a similar attack on the Orangi Town police station, however, was foiled as officials managed to defuse a 'ball bomb' planted outside the station.  

Gulshan SHO Safdar Mashwani the first bomb attack occurred at a Rangers check-post near Essa Nagri in PIB Colony.

A side wall of the check-posts was damaged. At the time of the attack, paramilitary soldiers were busy snap-checking vehicles but four of them were inside.

Witnesses said two men riding a motorcycle had thrown a plastic bag near the wall. The bag exploded after 40 seconds. Bomb disposal squad officials said the bomb weighed around 500 grams and was a locally-prepared improvised explosive device attached. 

Police have registered an FIR under sections of attempt to murder, the explosive act and Section 7 of the Anti Terrorism Act on behalf of the State.

While the law-enforcement agencies were busy gathering information about the attack, a Rangers check-post set up along a U-turn in Moti Mahal was attacked after 15 or 20 minutes.

Sub-divisional police officer Nasir Lodhi said nobody saw the attackers, but initial findings had that a cracker bomb was hurled from a service road in Essa Nagri behind the check-post.  At the time of the attack, three Rangers soldiers were inside the check-post but they remained unhurt.

The bomb disposal squad said the improvised explosive device used in the attack weighed 500 grams. It was placed inside a plastic bag and had a non-electric detonator with a safety fuse attached to it.

A Rangers spokesperson said for the past few days, a militant wing was trying to ignite tensions in Karachi and inciting the public towards hatred and violence.  He added that the militant wing could be responsible for the attacks on the Rangers check-posts.

Raja Umer Khattab, the chief of the anti-transnational terrorist intelligence group, said that law-enforcement agencies were constantly being targeted by banned outfits ever since the crackdown against them had been intensified. 

He added the Mobina Town police station too was recently attacked in a similar manner.  “The bomb blasts at Rangers’ check-posts seem to be a part of the same chain of attacks and the Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent is behind them.”

Rangers conducted raids in North Nazimabad and Malir areas and rounded up three suspected criminals affiliated with a militant wing including a target killer. They were found in possession of weapons.