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Thursday March 28, 2024

Committee formed to probe grenade blast at police HQ

By Salis bin Perwaiz
August 05, 2022

After getting directives from Karachi police chief Jawed Alam Odho, Deputy Inspector General of Police Sharjil Kharal of the South Range has formed a committee to ascertain facts behind Wednesday’s grenade blast in the weaponry depot of the Police Headquarters, Garden.

Two policemen had lost their lives and two others, including a sub-inspector, were injured when the grenade exploded near the Kooth Khana (weaponry depot) at the police headquarters.

On Thursday, officials said Karachi’s additional inspector general took notice of the incident and ordered DIG Kharal to form an investigation team. The DIG constituted a team under the supervision of SSP Syed Asad Raza of District South to ascertain facts about the explosion that occurred at a cobbler shop near the Kooth Khana of the police headquarters, resulting in the deaths of PC Shahzad and cobbler Sabir and critical injuries to SP Saeed (incharge of the weaponry depot) and PC Ali Gohar.

The committee members are SSP South Asad Raza, SP Investigation-II District City Asif Ahmed Bughio and SP Ali Mardan Khoso of Saddar Division. The panel will submit a report to the DIG office for taking necessary action accordingly.

Meanwhile, the Bomb Disposal Unit of the Sindh police submitted its report to the departmental heads, recommending that the hand grenades at the depot should be immediately handed over to the Pakistan Army as they were dangerous. The report reads, “They have inspected 68 hand grenades HE-36 made in POF in a rusted condition and they are in a dangerous condition…. These all grenades require demolition and it is requested that all these grenades should be handed over to the Pakistan Army for final disposal and demolition.”

The report states that two-inch mortar shells are in an old and dangerous condition and need to be disposed of. It recommends handing them over to the Pakistan Army for safe their disposal. After the explosion at the police headquarters at around 11:15 on Wednesday, senior officials of the Sindh police, including the DIG of the Counter Terrorism Department and the DIG of the South Zone, also reached the site of the incident and gathered details from the staff present there.

Officials said that after the recent rains, the depot’s officials were asked to inspect the weaponry there, so during the process, the officials took some hand grenades from the depot and were, according to initial investigations, checking them at a cobbler’s shop within the police HQ. They said Constable Sabir, who was also a cobbler of the police, was present there when an explosion occurred, which, according to the BDS, could have happened as a result of someone trying to unpin the grenade, but the officials said that it was too early to confirm.