Blast at police station: Negligence to blame, not terrorists

Officials tell investigators that the explosion was caused by illegal fireworks seized and stored in warehouse.

MULTAN:

Three police officials were suspended from duties on Wednesday following their admission before an investigation team that the Sunday’s blast at the Gaddafi police post was caused by explosives they had stored in a warehouse at the police station.

Earlier, it was suspected that the blast was an incident of terrorism.

Sub Inspector Safdar Naseer, who was the in charge of the post, and Constables Rehmat Ali and Mushtaq told the investigation team that the explosives had been recovered from a criminal, city police officer Amir Zulfiqar Khan told The Express Tribune. He said the officials said they had later released the criminal without registration of a case but kept the explosives at the ware house.

Khan said the officials were found guilty of negligence and that strict action would be taken against them. He said the three were currently under arrest and that an FIR had been registered against them.

Khan said the explosives had gone off due to the heat inside the store room. He said more explosives were recovered from the store during investigations.

He said constable Mushtaq had first disclosed to the investigators that the blast was caused due to negligence and was not an incident of terrorism. He said the SI and the other constables had later confessed to their role.

“Mushtaq told the investigators that he was waiting for Shab-i-Baraat so he could sell the explosives in the market,” the CPO said. He said action would be taken against the officials involved in accordance with the departmental rules and regulations.

Eleven people, seven civilians and four policemen, were injured in the blast at the police station on Sunday. Police had initially said it was a terrorist attack aimed possibly at releasing three criminals locked up at the police station. However, investigations later revealed that the three had already been shifted to another police station on Saturday. The building of the police station and some adjoining houses were damaged in the explosion.

District civil defence officer, Shahid Pervaiz, had already told media on Sunday that evidence suggested that the blast had happened inside the police station. He had ruled out a terrorist attack as an explanation.

CPO Khan said he had issued instructions for thorough searches at all police stations in the city. He said he had sought clearance reports for all police statios. He said if explosives were found from any other police station, strict action would be taken against all officials posted there.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2011.