Crisis averted: IEDs defused on railway track in Matiari district

HYDERABAD: An explosion on a railway track in Matiari district was averted on Thursday as two Pakistan Railways personnel spotted the miscreants while they were fixing a bomb.

Matiari SSP Malik Zafar Iqbal told the local media that after watching the staff approaching them, the suspects escaped on their motorcycles, leaving the IEDs on the track.

The personnel, Wazir Ali and Aashiq, informed their seniors about the incident, who called the police and bomb disposal squad from Hyderabad to the site near the Palijani Railway Station. Both the IEDs weighed around 200 grams. A detonator and wires attached to the IEDs were also recovered.

The SSP informed that a hunt for the suspects was launched in a two square-kilometre radius near the track but he did not confirm any arrests. Police sources said that at least four suspects were arrested after the incident.

"We have found a pamphlet of a banned nationalist outfit near the track," claimed the SSP. Previous similar attacks were claimed by the Sindhu Desh Liberation Army, which is said to be a militant wing of the banned Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2016.