Rawalpindi roundup: Bomb squad defuses 120mm shell in park

The shell was buried in a garbage heap

RAWALPINDI: A mortar shell was safely removed by the police and Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) from a heap of garbage dumped near a public park located in Lalkurti, within limits of Police Station (PS) Civil Line, police said on Saturday.

Before removing the shell, the police and other law enforcement agencies (LEAs) closed the park for public as BDS examined the 120mm round.

According to sources, a local resident telephoned the police after spotting the mortar shell in a garbage dump near a public park in Lalkurti. Following the information, a heavy contingent of police rushed to the scene and later BDS was also called, the police said.

Civil Lines Circle DSP Farhan Aslam confirmed the recovery of a mortar shell in Lalkurti. He said that it seemed the mortar shell reached was dumped along with garbage in a small drain that flows by the public park.

Meanwhile, street crimes in Potohar Division continue as a gang of unidentified robbers burgled the house of an army officer at Afshan Colony after cutting the locks on the door, while two robbers snatched cash and a mobile phone from a lawyer in Sher Zaman Colony.

Police lodged cases and started investigation, but no arrests have been made.

Sources said that Captain Samina Kausar of the Armed Forces Nursing Services complained at Racecourse Police Station that she was in Lahore with her family for Eid when her house near Kashmir Market, Afshan Colony was robbed.

She said that the robbers broke the locks with a cutter and escaped with Rs50,000 and $600 in cash, a laptop, an army uniform, and ranks marks and badges.

Meanwhile, Advocate Nadeem told Civil Lines that he was parking his car in his house at 11pm on Thursday night when two unidentified robbers on a motorcycle arrived and held a pistol to his head. They took Rs45,000 and a mobile phone from him and fled towards Lalazar.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2016.