Hazardous work: CTD officials injured while defusing bomb

MULTAN: Two officials of the Counter-Terrorism Department were trying to defuse an explosive device on the NLC Bypass near Ibn-i-Sina Hospital, a private medical college and teaching hospital, on Tuesday when the explosive went off. They were injured and were taken to Ibn-i-Sina Hospital for treatment. They were then referred to Nishtar Hospital where they were operated on and later taken to the ICU.

Police said the area had been cordoned off and a heavy contingent had been deployed there.

CPO Azhar Akram said the CTD officials were trying to take the explosives to the CTD Multan police station when the explosives went off. The officials were injured and had to be operated on, he said. Some people in the area said that they did not know that they were CTD officials. “We just saw two men sitting on the roadside and fiddling with a box for half an hour before the box blew up,” one of the eye-witnesses said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2016.