No casualties: IED explodes near govt colony in Jamshoro

Hyderabad DIG says 'enemies of Pakistan' behind bicycle blast

HYDERABAD:  

An improvised explosive device (IED) attached to a bicycle exploded near a government employees' residential colony in Jamshoro district on Tuesday.

This was the second incident of IED explosions to have occurred in Hyderabad division. However, like Monday's blast at the railway track in Hyderabad, in which nine carriages of a cargo train were derailed, no casualty took place in Jamshoro.

The blast occurred near the Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD) Colony, which is situated around a kilometre from the Kotri barrage. The IED ripped the bicycle into pieces. Eyewitnesses from nearby shops and a fuel station told the police that it seemed like a remote-controlled explosion. According to them, they saw one of the three persons in a car, which stopped at some distance from the bicycle, carrying a remote. Meanwhile, the Bomb Disposal Squad says it was a cracker that caused the explosion.

"Elements that are enemies of the country are involved in the attacks," said Hyderabad DIG Khadim Hussain Rind, while talking to media at the reception of Hyderabad Chamber of Small Traders and Small Industry. He said that a pamphlet from an unidentified organisation was found near the tracks in Hyderabad. In Jamshoro, he added, the explosives were attached to a bicycle. "These incidents bear hallmarks of previous such incidents in which IEDs exploded on the tracks," he said, adding that a large number of miscreants allegedly involved in such attacks have been arrested, basing his assertion on the long hiatus in IED attacks in Sindh.

"Such elements get training from the enemies of Pakistan that don't want to see stability, peace and prosperity in Pakistan," said Rind. Meanwhile, the FIR of blast at the railway track was lodged at the Railway police station against unidentified miscreants on Monday night.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2016.