Harrowing journey: Blast kills bystander, injures 23 SUPARCO employees

A remote control was used to explode the bomb fixed on a bicycle.

KARACHI: A bystander was killed while 23 people were injured when an explosion occurred near a bus carrying the employees of the country’s space agency - Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) at Hub River Road in Mawach Goth on Wednesday.

A bicycle which was parked by the roadside had an explosive-laden box on its carrier. When the bus passed by it someone caused it to explode. However, the person who detonated the device was a split second late. The explosion occurred near the rear end of the long bus, hence the damage was less. If it had occurred near the front or the centre of the bus then the number of casualties would have been much higher.

According to their daily routine, the employees left around 4:10 pm. They travelled only about a kilometer when the bomb exploded at Mawach Goth Morr at around 4:25 pm. The bus had a capacity of 70 passengers but there were about 40 people on board. Most of them are residents of Malir.

At first, the police declared it to be a cylinder blast. But after the bomb disposal squad inspected the site it was found out that the explosion had been caused by a remote-controlled device.

Samples have been collected from the site and they will be sent to the laboratory on Thursday (today). A member of the bomb-disposal squad, Mustafa Arain, said that the bomb contained nearly three kilogrammes of highly explosive material. The bomb looked like a car battery and was fixed on the carrier of the bicycle.

“There were no ball bearings, nails or shrapnel inside the bomb but only explosives,” he said. “It seems like Research Department Explosive, commonly known as RDX, was used but nothing can be said until the final examination.”

According to Arain, in targeted attacks like these, the person with the remote control usually hides at a distance between 100 and 300 metres from the blast site. “Fortunately, there was a minor difference in the timing and the footpath and the bicycle took the impact of the blast,” he said. “Otherwise more people would have died.”

According to some television reports, the banned Lashkar-e-Balochistan, a faction of the Balochistan Liberation Army has claimed responsibility for the attack. But the police neither confirmed nor denied their involvement. All they said was that they have not received any authentic information regarding their involvement in the attack.

West Zone SSP Amir Farooqui told The Express Tribune that the man who died in the explosion was identified as Anwar. He used to run a tyre puncture shop in the area. All the injured are employees of SUPARCO and most of them have minor injuries and were released from hospitals after receiving first aid. Around 10 employees are in Civil hospital. One passenger, Pervez Hayat, 25, lost his hearing because of the explosion.

Farouqui said that the police are looking for the man who parked the bicycle there with the help of eyewitnesses.

SUPARCO’s general manager, Ghulam Murtaza, refused to comment when approached by The Express Tribune.

Around a dozen suspects have been detained from Mawach Goth and its surrounding areas in police raids since the attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 12^th, 2012.