Mediamen injured in bomb blast
KARACHI – A police guard was killed and at least 33 people, including police personnel and media men, were wounded when two car bombs exploded in succession near the Pak-American Cultural Centre and the residence of the US consul-general in Karachi on May 26.
Both the cars were parked along the Fatima Jinnah Road and the bombs exploded at an interval of about 30 minutes, police said. The first explosion of mild intensity occurred at about 5:05pm in a Honda City (ADY-699) which had been parked in front of the PACC near the consul-general’s residence and some 500 yards from the US Consulate.
The car was neither stolen nor snatched. Police believed that a time-bomb with magnet was planted in it after it was parked. The car’s top was blown up and its interior was badly damaged in the blast.
Police and media people reached the spot. A few feet away a golden Honda City bearing the government registration number GS- 4240 was parked. Police got suspicious and asked the media people to keep away from the car.
The reporters were recording details of the suspected car and photographers and cameramen were snapping shots when the car blew up with a deafening sound at around 5:32pm. It caught fire and was destroyed within seconds.
Yet another car remained parked nearby, creating panic among the personnel of the law-enforcement agencies. The bomb disposal squad inspected and declared it safe, a police official said.
The injured were taken to the Jinnah Post-graduate Medical Centre where a guard of the TPO Clifton died. He was identified as Constable Jehangir. The injured policemen were identified as TPO Munir Shaikh, DSP Rana Pervez, DSP Irshad Ali, SI Ziaullah, inspector Irfan Ahmed, SI Chaudhry Safdar, SI Sajid Ali, ASI Riaz Gujjar, ASI Abdullah, Constable Sheraz, SI Yaseen, and Constable Ajmal.
The injured press photographers were Aslam Majeed, Zia Mazhar, Nazeeruddin Khan, Amir Qureshi, Sohail Rafiq, Abbas Mehdi, Mehmood Qureshi, Syed Shahrukh Hussain, Azeemuddin, Akbar Baloch, Faysal Mujeeb, Zulfiqar and Shaikh Mehmood.
A private security guard, Mohammad Akhtar, and two passersby, Matiullah and Syed Zaki Ali, were also injured. In the first blast, four students of the PACC, Farrukh Mohammad, Asif Iqbal, Waqas Mehmood and Ayaz Mehmood, were injured.
The Fatima Jinnah Road is supposed to be one of the most secured roads in the city. It has long been closed for heavy traffic. Motorcyclists and Suzuki hi-roof vehicles are not allowed to use it. Security personnel remain deployed on the road and its parallel Abdullah Haroon Road where the US Consulate is located.
The vehicles are allowed on the Fatima Jinnah Road only after their registration numbers and the drivers’ name are noted by the police. “I was just turning around after taking snaps of the golden car when it exploded. Something hit the lower part of my head and I fell,” said a photographer, lying on a hospital bed with bandages on his head.
Clifton town police officer, SP Munir Shaikh, suffered serious injuries and was shifted to the Aga Khan University Hospital. He had been injured in a similar explosion on Jan 15 near the Avari Towers.
The adviser to Sindh chief minister on home affairs, Aftab Ahmed Shaikh, told reporters at the JPMC that it was an attempt to sabotage peace in the city. It is not the failure of the government as we have arrested many militants for their involvement in terrorist activities. We will make all-out efforts to arrest those involved in these explosions,” he added.
“It is premature to say that who is involved in it,” he said but he did not rule out involvement of foreign hand. Two labourers were killed and two others injured in a parcel bomb explosion on the premises of the Karachi Port Trust on Monday. On May 7, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside the Hyderi Mosque killing 14 people. The death toll has since risen to 22.
Source: Dawn
Date:5/27/2004
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