Vistro suffered critical injuries to his hands. His head, chest and legs were also slightly injured. Three fingers and a large part of his left hand were blown up in the blast. The upper-half part of the thumb in the right hand was also severed, according to Dr Asad, who examined him at the Civil Hospital, Hyderabad.
"His left hand will have to be amputated. The right hand is also badly injured but we need to do an X-ray before we make any decision," he told The Express Tribune. Vistro, who recently returned from training in Australia, is diabetic.
According to Special Branch SP Syed Imdad Shah, the officer was not wearing the protective kit. "He had defused 18 out of the 40 hand grenades. The 19th one blew up," he told The Express Tribune.
The grenades were seized during a police raid on October 16 from a nationalist worker Zeeshan Jiskani, who was booked under the anti-terrorism act. The Anti-Terrorism Court, on October 24, had directed the police to defuse the grenades which were lying in the A-Section police station.
"I asked him to wear the gear when we returned from the lunch break. But he didn't listen," said Muhammad Ramzan, a fellow BDS SI who was with Vistro.
The BDS personnel are often seen violating safety rules. The Hyderabad based-BDS squad's jurisdiction comprises the nine districts of Hyderabad division. But there are only eight inspectors at the ASI level in the squad.
SP Shah claimed that the squad was given new kits around two years ago. He, however, failed to recall how many kits were given.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 29th, 2014.
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